00:07
And now on 2GB Sydney, 4BC Brisbane and network stations across Australia, it's time for Nights with John Stanley.
00:17
Good evening, everyone. Welcome along. Welcome to this Tuesday night. There's a lot to talk about in our news. We'll be talking finance and superannuation also in our next hour. But there is some news through that what they're describing is a very large 7.1 magnitude earthquake has hit Japan. Now, there were tsunami fears there. It hit Kumamoto, which is on the southern Mayan island of Kyoshu. So there was an ancient castle there. The walls have been sent tumbling. I'm reading this report there. on news.com.au.
00:48
Power's been cut to tens of thousands of homes. They say it was six miles below the sea surface. And the Japanese Meteorology Agency was talking about the possibility of a tsunami. That warning has now been lifted, but they are talking about the power. They have checked all the nuclear plants. Of course, plenty of those in Japan. And so they are...
01:12
unaffected by this. So that's all happened just in the last hour or so. No abnormalities at the nuclear power plants, no deaths, no major damage. There has been some pretty spectacular image of an ancient castle with the walls tumbling. There has been some damage, but that's the news, and we'll keep across that for you. That's just happened in the last hour. There's also, of course, been seismic events in Victorian politics today. Quite weird, because there's a new premier, This is Ben Carroll. And for those in the northern states, I didn't actually know what Ben Carroll looked like till today.
01:47
And I think that would be the case with most people outside Victoria. And apart from the fact that he's an absolute dead ringer for the comedian Lawrence Mooney, and if you don't believe me, just Google search it.
01:58
I reckon they could both walk into a room and you'd be trying to work out which one was which. They look almost identical, very similar hair, square jaw.
02:07
But besides that, he's a fairly wooden performer and he is declaring that he's going to have a royal commission into the corruption involving the big bills, as it's called there, and the CFMEU. And he stood up and said, well, I'm not Daniel Andrews. I'm not Jacinta Allen. Effectively trying to say, well, I'm sweeping aside all of that. I'm a new broom.
02:29
It's a change of government.
02:32
Now, whether that's going to work, we'll find out. I've got a news hour guest joining me. He is, of course, from the Liberal Party. The coalition, based on a poll only two days ago, was in the box seat to win the election in its own right in Victoria, with that One Nation vote starting to track down and they don't have any candidates or public figures associated with it at all in Victoria. Will this change all of that?
02:56
You may have some views. I know plenty of you listen to us, of course, in Victoria and in Melbourne. You might like to throw your two cents worth in. 131873 is the number. We also had some news today. This is ongoing story of the Iran war. There's no sign of an end to that. We've had international and global fuel supplies affected. And one person we've kept in touch with regularly on this program... is John Blackburn going all the way back to 2013. He's a fuel security expert. He's written reports on this. He was working with Jim Molan on it in terms of our fuel security.
03:30
And, of course, today the government has said they're going to have a feasibility study. for an oil refinery in Western Australia. Now, this was flagged last night when I first mentioned this on the program. A few of you are asking questions, well, why WA? What's the practicality of this? How would it work? And so I thought we'd get a quick comment, because this person's the expert in all of this, with John Blackburn, who's written these reports. He knows the stuff inside out. I spoke with him earlier today to find out what he thinks about this proposal, which was unveiled today.
04:01
Well, it's interesting. It's the first time in about 15 years I've heard anyone in government even contemplate looking at the refining sector to invest in a refining industry. And I think it's important because we don't want to discount that. What this war has shown us is our resilience problems and our vulnerability. So if we can ensure that we've got the oil supplies, then looking at how we process it, distribute it, WA needs this as well, makes sense. There's a long way to go from doing the preliminary study to actually building it, but I'm glad to hear they're looking at these options.
04:34
One of our listeners, quite a few of them, were saying, well, why would you do it in WA? I think there's a refinery in Queensland. We've got a couple of refineries, I think, on the East Coast. Is that right? And nothing across in WA?
04:45
We've only got two refineries. So there's one in Geelong, in Beavers, and the other one is Ampols up in Brisbane. We had a lot more. Remember, we had seven or eight, 15 years ago. Well, WA had a refinery. That closed down a couple of years back, the BP, one at Guadana.
04:59
They're an interesting situation. They're a state with the largest amount of oil resources of any state with no refinery.
05:07
So it does make sense because you want to be able to produce refined products in a distributed sense, whether it's a full large-scale refinery or smaller. But if you do this, I really suspect to make it viable, the government would have to commit to subsidising it because a small refinery would have difficulty in competing against the large refineries in Asia, the problem why a lot of our refineries closed.
05:29
And so if you subsidise this one, the other two are they, I'm assuming they've got some sort of subsidy already, the Geelong one? Oh, absolutely, yeah.
05:36
Yeah, absolutely. So what happened in about 2020, I think, was Angus Taylor, when he was Energy Minister, offered subsidies to the four remaining refineries because he could see the essential nature of having a refining capacity. Only two took that subsidy, the ones that remain today, and the Labor Party extended that subsidy in the last few months, I think. So currently the subsidy contracts go out till 2030.
05:59
What happens after that, who knows? But if we lose our refining industry, what it means is that you can't import oil as well as refined fuel. At the moment, about 5% of our transport fuels come from Australian oil through the two refineries.
06:14
About 20% of our transport fuel is imported oil to the two refineries, and 75% comes in as refined fuel.
06:23
That's not adequate enough for resilient purposes. The issue does, if we look at that in WA, we've got to make sure there are all resources beyond what's on the Northwest Shelf. I understand the remaining life of that resource is about seven years. We need to see what other resources there might be.
06:40
And with the Northwest Shelf, you've mentioned that the crude there could be refined into diesel. Is that right?
06:45
Yeah, well, it's a light-sweet crude, and at the moment, because of its location, it's taken to Singapore and the Asian refineries for processing. The refineries that we have left were not optimized for that type of light-sweet crude and would have to be modified to use more than a small amount of it. But again, it was more economical to export it there. Could we switch those refineries to lightweight crude? Totally. I'm not sure what the cost and time delay that would be, whether that makes sense. But if we're going to put something in place in WA, let's make sure it can use the oil resource we have.
07:18
You've written lengthy reports, and I'll reference them again to our listeners. You can go and look them up. You've got them there. They're on your website about the consequence of this big change in what's happening in the world with the Iran war. It's continuing as well. Our supply chains, our vulnerability, our fuel security. This is a kind of a small step, obviously a welcome one, but there's still a lot more we should be doing.
07:41
Oh, absolutely. So what happened is we quite often in this country react to a problem pretty well, but we don't prepare. The next thing that happens is we'll do all things in pieces. We'll have this piece here with EVs and we'll do this bit over there. We're not taking a system view. This is a very complicated problem with our transport energy and our supply chain. And you need to sit back. And you know what? We don't even have a proper risk and vulnerability assessment for this because the last national energy security assessment was 2011. And I've been advocating for years, look, let's understand our risks and vulnerabilities and then we can plan this, have all these pieces fit together.
08:18
And we still haven't done that.
08:20
Just a final question, following on from what you've just said. Had that been done and then they war game, all right, what are the possibilities? Might we have to set up another refinery potentially down the track? We wouldn't need, would we, this feasibility study. That would all have been done now. You just flick the switch. Would that be right?
08:38
Well, you'd want it running and you have to make sure...
08:42
If you're importing oil, it gives you a diverse source apart from just refined fuels. If you've got your own oil resources, which Queensland's trying to look at now, it makes a lot more sense. But governments for the last 15 years, the feeling was, look, it's cheaper to import refined fuel than have your own refineries. And I did point out to those people that that gives you a just-in-time delivery system. We want a just-in-case. Now, in the past, there have been some energy ministers interested in looking at it, but the general line, certainly that was coming out from the Liberal Party when they were in power was, look, this is not an election issue.
09:16
We're not going to go for that huge amount of investment to do it. But the consequence of that, of not looking ahead and investing in our resilience is the situation we're in right now, because regardless of when that strait does or doesn't open, the next few years are very turbulent.
09:30
Appreciate your time. Let's have a longer conversation in the next week or so. Thank you. You're welcome, John. Yes, John Blackburn. Look, there's a number of different reports. If you just Google John Blackburn fuel security, you can find a number of the organisations he works with and there's some very detailed reports on fuel security, supply chains and news. Our guest knows... All about this. Our news hour guest is a prominent member of the Victorian Liberal Party. I think he'll have thoughts on that. He'll have thoughts on what's happened today in Victoria. I'm sure he'll also have thoughts on what's happening in Iran because one of you just sent me a note, some of these stories suggesting that some of the American stockpile of weapons has been run down and that's one of the reasons they're slowing down in relation to what they're doing in Iran.
10:12
Could that be possible? Yeah. We'll find out shortly. 131873 is the number. Lots of feedback coming in. I'll get through all of that for you at 17 past eight now.
10:22
20 and a half minutes past eight is the time. A few people are saying it would take 10 years to build a refinery. Might as well build a couple of nuclear coal-fired power stations as well. A lot of people are making the point that you're talking about feasibility studies and long-term plans and everything takes so long to build. I will make this quick observation, and I'm going to later in the show, if I can fit some time in, just give you a potted history of why we take so long to do things. In 1986...
10:49
The Hawke government set aside some land at Badgeries Creek for a second airport for Sydney. And in fact, I'm sure it was the 1993 budget. I actually broke the story ahead of the budget that afternoon that the budget would provide the first funding for some work to be done, the scoping work on the Badgeries Creek Airport. And that was 33 years ago. And it was supported and canned and then supported and then canned and then modified and then all sorts of hurdles put in its place until 13 years ago.
11:23
Tony Abbott actually said, it's got to happen. And then there were all sorts of other hurdles that had to go through and the things actually operated and some freight planes were operating through the night. And I'm seeing some reports from people who were under the flight paths because it's a 24-hour airport. But the story, I want to focus on how long it's taken us to get here and maybe that story of how long it takes to get things done in this country. Let's go to our news. Our guest, Keith Wallahan, of course, is a former Liberal MP. He's now working as a barrister, as a member of the Liberal Party.
11:54
He's also a member of the Defence Force's number of tours in Afghanistan. He's got a range of interests and he joins me on the line now from Victoria.
12:05
Keith, good evening to you.
12:07
And good evening to you and your listeners.
12:08
Let's just kick off because just your thoughts, because I know you've got an interest and you look at the supply chains and vulnerabilities from the defence perspective and our fuel security as well.
12:19
How confident are you when you hear us talk about scoping and doing some planning for a new oil refinery?
12:27
Well, I'm glad we're talking about it, but as you have pointed out, this isn't the first time this idea has come forward.
12:35
I wish these scoping studies were done many years ago so that we could actually action it rather than kick the can down the road.
12:42
But look, it's better than nothing. And it took a fuel crisis for us to look at this. It shouldn't take a fuel crisis for us to realise that we should be self-sufficient.
12:52
And the other one, because you're never sure what's coming out of Washington, but there are people in some of the defence industries that have been saying that their supplies of missiles in particular have been degraded by the constant war with Iran. Then you've got Pete Heskis saying that... They're going to try and re-bolster industry and try and get more of these things built. And the implication was, well, maybe we need more. And then Donald Trump's saying we've got enough. What do you make of that? Because I suppose you can only throw enough missiles at Iran.
13:24
They've got to start running out at some point, don't they?
13:27
They do. I mean, it's hard to read the tea leaves on this because it feels like, you know, we're witness to a negotiation on a settlement that, you know, one day it's all out total destruction and war. The next is peace in our time. And you see the markets go up and down. You see airlines change their flight paths.
13:48
You see people rushing to fill up their diesel. But I I think most of this is the language of a negotiation, and it's hard to tell what's really happening in the US supply chains. But it points to a broader issue, which is we get distracted in conflict by the actual combat, but it's the industry behind the equipment that matters most. And that can be a vulnerability.
14:16
Now, at 24 and a half minutes past eight, quite a week, and everyone's focusing now on Victoria, so let's do that. You are a Liberal from Victoria. You were a member of the Federal Parliament, I'm assuming. You want to run again.
14:31
The Liberal Party would certainly be hoping that you run again, but you're working now as a barrister, but you... You do talk about these things. You do talk to people in your own electorate. So the week began with a poll showing the One Nation vote starting to tail off, down below 20%. The Coalition in an election-winning position. Still 52-48, but the Coalition's got to win 16 seats. But it would be quite a feat for the Coalition to win an election and get back into government in Victoria. Obviously, the Labor Party's panicked. They've got rid of their leader. And it's fair to say the new leaders got up and said...
15:05
I'm cutting everything that's happened in the past on the new broom. You can effectively treat it as a new government. That's what he's trying to do.
15:13
I've got someone here on my feedback line saying, isn't he like, he says he's not Jacinta Allen. He's not Daniel Andrews.
15:22
um he didn't rob the bank he just drove the getaway car but before i get your comment because he did appear i was quite surprised because most of us north of the the murray probably didn't even know what he looked like but he does seem he seems very dull can we just have a quick listen this is this is ben carroll speaking after he became victorian premier have a listen to be here with the new deputy premier gabriel williams I'm going to try and hear this. Have we got Ben Carroll? We've got that there. This is Ben Carroll, the new Premier.
15:54
Let's see.
15:55
All right, we need to track this down. We need to find Ben Carroll, the new Premier, because we haven't got that here at the moment. So I want to get it and let people have a listen because it did happen between 10 and 11 o'clock this morning, Keith. So I was actually watching it. A lot of people were at work. People would have gone to work today and found they had a new Premier. Have you had any interactions with this Ben Carroll?
16:17
A few, I've met him at various different functions when I was a member of parliament. I found him to be a pleasant person, but the idea that this is same, same, but different won't wash. He sat around the cabinet table during the daniel andrews era during the jacinta allen era and to then say that this is the change you have been looking for victoria uh that's that's a bit cheeky look i i don't mind that our state leaders might be dull that doesn't bother me i think what matters is you want them to be competent and people of character now i'm not going to question his character but he's been part of a government that has collectively shown poor character even if he individually might be a decent person.
17:01
But also this government has shown gross incompetence.
17:05
I mean, when you look at, even he knows it, for him to list his three line items as integrity, integrity, crime and business, he knows that all three of those measures are the worst in the country and the worst for decades. The $15 billion big build corruption scandal, it's almost too big to comprehend. It is the most egregious corruption scandal in Australian modern history. And And I think when you add so many zeros to it, it's hard to imagine that sort of money in a brown paper bag.
17:43
You wouldn't have enough brown paper bags in Australia to visualize it. But what it effectively means is for every bridge, tunnel or road, there is a 30% premium in Victoria that doesn't just go to the CFMEU, it goes to organized crime.
17:59
And that is a scandal of epic proportion.
18:01
Let's just try that again, because I want to hear there's two bits. I should hear the bit about the Royal Commission, because in relation to the Royal Commission, you're talking about something where this has been reporting, particularly by Nick McKenzie, the Herald, The Age, almost week after week. We see this and we see the summaries of it. $15 billion, involvement of the CFMEU. So if you're the Deputy Premier in a government that's essentially mishandling that and suddenly you're the Premier and you're saying, well, we need to have a Royal Commission, were you saying that privately?
18:32
Were you saying it last week? Were you saying it a month ago? Were you saying it six months ago? That's the question, isn't it?
18:37
It is. I mean, I take from that that he was, and it's been a source of disagreement.
18:45
But there's Royal Commissions and there's Royal Commissions. I mean, Royal Commissions are only as good as the terms of reference that a government gives them. So it's one thing to announce it. But let's see what the terms of reference are for this Royal Commission. I remember the Royal Commission into the hotel quarantine stuff up in Victoria. Mm-hmm. It was wholly inadequate. And when it got to the point of asking the proper questions to the proper people, being the Premier's Chief of Staff, it closed up shop. It said, oh, we're done here.
19:15
I hope that doesn't happen again with this Royal Commission. And it's given wide ranging powers, because if it doesn't, if the coalition win in November, I think they're entitled to revisit that and to give it the powers that it needs or start again.
19:31
Okay, I'd hear the Royal Commission bit if I can, just have a listen.
19:34
In my government, integrity will not be optional.
19:40
Whether in business, politics, or the union movement, there will be zero tolerance for those that misuse their positions.
19:53
That is why, My first action as Premier will be to call a Royal Commission into the construction sector.
20:03
Okay, and look, I'll just bring you again, this is the presentation, because there are gaps, and again, as I say, he's not charismatic, but of course, as you say, Keith, that doesn't necessarily mean you're not going to do a good job. So just have a listen again to him, because he's really distancing himself from the past.
20:21
To be here with the new Deputy Premier, Gabrielle Williams.
20:26
I am honoured and humbled to be elected unanimously as the new leader of the Victorian Labor Party and serve as the 50th Premier of Victoria.
20:38
Yesterday, a group of colleagues approached me and informed me that Jacinta Allen no longer had the support of the caucus.
20:47
They asked me to put my hand up.
20:51
This was not an easy decision, but the stakes at this election are too high.
20:57
Polling says Victoria is on track for Australia's first Liberal One Nation government.
21:06
A Liberal One Nation government that will cut hospitals, cut schools and cut frontline services.
21:15
A Liberal One Nation government that will cut childcare, cut free TAFE and so many other services Victorians rely on every day.
21:27
This election, only Labor can stop the risk of a Liberal One Nation government.
21:33
Yeah, so look, that's the approach they're taking, Keith. They're saying that they're not going to get in unless they've got support from One Nation, One Nation to be part of that government. The poll yesterday doesn't suggest that would be the case, but that'll be part of the conversation in the days ahead.
21:48
It will. And what you're seeing is also a trial run of the campaign that Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will run in the subsequent federal election, which is that instead of arguing the merits of policies and people in the coalition, they want to attach the coalition to one nation and every particular candidate or policy that's distasteful and say, well, you get one, you get the other.
22:13
So with this, and I guess there'll be polling done, he's saying he's not the other two. It's quite a different approach to what we've seen in the past.
22:23
The most recent example, I guess you'd say, you had Kamala Harris who was in a situation where she couldn't really say, look, the bloke I was working for...
22:34
in the last year at least, was barely coherent. I'm not going to be falling asleep in debates. I've got a different approach to a whole range of issues. So you've got to, if you've got a deeply unpopular government, you've got to say, I'm different. I'm taking a completely different approach. But that's going to be hard to keep that up, isn't it?
22:52
It is hard. And this is a stale government. So out of the last 27 years, 23 in Victoria have been this government, so the Labor government. I mean, that is extraordinary. And really, it's not healthy for democracy. I'm obviously one-eyed about party politics, but I'm I'm a citizen of Australia and resident of Victoria first. And I don't think that's healthy for any democracy, for one party to dominate 23 out of 27 years. If the shoe was on the other foot, I would like to think I would say the same thing.
23:22
There's a point at which even, I think, Labor Party members quietly whisper that they wish they could have some time in opposition so they could refresh and renew. Yeah.
23:32
If we remember, of course, when you've got someone who's blasted out of the job and really wasn't happy about it, Jacinta Allen's obviously not happy about it. Plainly, she's unhappy that she's been dumped. We know Kevin Rudd was deeply unhappy. And then we had leaks, famously, about things she said and did in cabinet meetings, conversations she'd had with Kevin Rudd that were then leaked. So that's going to be, I guess, the next week. If, for instance, he's had anything in his closet in relation to the Building Royal Commission, some of these issues, what his position was privately, It's going to come out.
24:10
It has to come out because there's a lot of enemies there.
24:13
And it's quite clear that the outgoing Premier, Alan, is very bitter and angry.
24:19
She, in her press conference when she resigned, said, well, I'm not going to put this to a ballot of the members because I wouldn't put the party and the state through that. But then, as it turns out, she was one of the 15 caucus members who signed Kilkenny's nomination to run anyway, which would have put... the party and the state through the very process she said she didn't want to put them through so it just completely inconsistent and and obviously very angry and bitter and and prepared to put uh revenge and spite ahead of even her own party's interests yeah
24:56
You're a lawyer with a Royal Commission and I've been observing these things for a long time. It's a few months to go. So it's tokenism, isn't it? Saying I'll have a Royal Commission. But the Royal Commission, it's hard to imagine, is going to be up and running before the election. Be very brave to do that. And if there's a change of government, they can just change the terms of reference and change it, can't they?
25:19
Look, one of the quickest royal commissions I've seen up and running is the anti-Semitism royal commission. That seemed to have hearings very quickly. But even that took several months. So given we're only a few months to the Victorian election, I don't see how even the quickest royal commission would get up and running. you'd probably find there would be, you know, they have to hire staff, they have to have a venue, they would get their counsel, instructing solicitors, and then would probably have an opening and saying, here's the website for submissions, and then now we're in caretaker mode, we'll see you after the election.
25:52
All right.
25:54
Look, I've got a lot of feedback here. I'll go through that feedback shortly. I want to just ask you also, because I know you've got some strong views on the unions, the union involvement in disputes in WA, maybe the rise of union activism, maybe to try and fend off what's happening with AI and the union involvement with this government as well. So I want to come back in a moment. I'm wondering whether that is a factor now at the ballot box or might be. We've got Keith Wallerhead as our NewsHour guest here tonight, 23 to 9.
26:25
20 minutes to nine is the time and we are talking news of the day with Keith Wallaghan. There's a lot to talk about and the issue of living standards. I want to get to that and also the unions. But the opposition in Victoria, again, north of the Murray, Jess Wilson, if you follow the news closely, she's, I think, 34. She's in her first term of parliament. She's had a very impressive start. This is a little bit of what she was saying about the Royal Commission. Just have a listen.
26:51
The big build is the creation of this government, and the new Premier now owns its legacy.
27:00
He sat at the same Cabinet table as Premier Allen and Premier Andrews, signing off on the system that enabled CFMEU corruption and misconduct on the big build.
27:11
He sat around the Cabinet table while $15 billion was siphoned into the pockets of bikies and organised crime.
27:20
Yeah, so that's, I guess, a sense of her style, as I say.
27:26
You've got this Ben Carroll, he's 51, got a union background, worked at, I've had a look at it, he's got a legal career, worked in the unions, worked in politics. Jess Wilson, I think she's a lawyer as well, but it is her first time in Parliament. So your view, Keith, is you think she's still an underdog, do you?
27:47
Well, I do because, again, when you look at history, out of 27 years, the coalition has only had one term. So it's hard for Liberals to win in Victoria. I know that from personal experience from the last election. It's just hard. It's not a naturally liberal state. It's Labor considerate their home ground.
28:10
So I think Jess is doing an outstanding job and she will be very competitive.
28:15
But this is still Labor's election to lose and they will be calculating that this change to Ben Carroll has put them back in a competitive position again.
28:25
Alright, we'll find out I guess in the next week and I think there's also, I do believe there's The question of leaks against him from within his own party, which can be lethal. Just on the union question, because last time you were with us, you were talking about a union action that was being taken in WA. Unions, of course, for good reason, are concerned about AI. Anything that comes up that's going to reduce jobs, we saw it with the driverless trains in WA.
28:52
In Sydney, if you go back far enough, I think the buses were on strike here for six weeks. Those of us who are old enough to remember had to walk to school because the double-decker buses had the conductors taken off them. So any time there's a reduction, an AI is a big threat. So do you think unionism and unions, and particularly outfits like the CFMEU, are they going to become an election issue?
29:14
I'm not necessarily anti-union. I think unions have a role to play if they are focused on the interests of their members. I think where unions trip over themselves is when they become more interested in their own power and their own interests.
29:32
And A good example of that was the car industry, where the demands of the union ended, saw that industry leave our shores and all of their workers lost their jobs.
29:44
That was an example of a union acting against their members' interests and for their own short-term interests. This particular strike in WA concerns me because it is one of our most important issues export sectors at a critical time. And we have an advantage in the world at the moment, but that isn't going to last into the future. China is exploring new sites in Africa, South America, Canada. So the idea that we have this monopoly advantage in resources isn't guaranteed.
30:20
And we could find even in mining and resources, we make the same mistakes that we made in the car industry in previous decades.
30:28
16 to 9. Now, Keith, the question of... We talk about GDP, which is the economic growth, the growth of the economic pie, and we can grow that, and you've got some strong views on this because we talk about the worst decade for living standards growth since World War I. I know it's been discussed and pulled apart extensively on our Money News program, but you know how this works. The ABS put out figures and we say, oh, GDP's gone up and our economy's growing, but that's overall... What really counts, isn't it, and what you talk about is the bread and butter of GDP for individuals who go, well, I'm not sharing any of that growth.
31:03
And that's what's coming through increasingly, isn't it?
31:06
It is. And we've had this. Treasury has always focused, whether it's a coalition or a Labor government, they've always focused federally on aggregate GDP, which treasurers love because it makes it look like they're doing a great job. But what really matters and only matters is GDP per person. And so when Australians feel like they're poorer than they were 10 years ago or five years ago, they're not imagining that it's real. And so recently, the ABS brought out statistics of GDP, real GDP per capita by decade, and they went through each decade.
31:41
And sadly, and I take no joy in this, this current decade is the worst in Australian history. We've never had flatlining GDP per person like we've had in the last decade.
31:56
And that is a recipe for managed decline. And this great nation of ours has to have more ambition than just managing our decline because people won't just feel poorer. We actually will be poorer and Australians deserve better than that.
32:13
You, of course, still talk to people in your own electorate, which was the seat of Menzies, lost by that tiny margin.
32:20
All the evidence is that the people who voted Labor at the last election have had buyer's remorse. All the qualitative polls show that. What do people tell you? Because obviously you're saying to them, well, you're going to vote for me. You must be people saying, well, actually, I'm going to go One Nation. You must be getting that from some people, surely.
32:40
Some people do say that.
32:42
Some of it's frustration with the Liberal Party not winning. And they feel like, well, if you can't win, I'll go to someone else who might be able to win. That's why I think this state election in November is really important. I think it will give hope not just to Liberal Party members and supporters, but send a message to the wider public that We're a serious party that is competitive again. And that's on the Liberal Party to earn that trust again. And I think that's why November matters.
33:12
Can I just, at 13 minutes to nine, this story popped up just before I was coming to air.
33:17
And this is to do with, because I know crime's a big story in Victoria. Right across the country, we've had the tobacco wars.
33:23
And they've been particularly, literally deadly in Victoria. The Australian reporting that Chasm Kaz Hamad, he's the exiled underworld boss, branded Australia's most wanted man. The mastermind behind Melbourne's deadly tobacco wars. He's also been implicated in some of the attacks on Jewish institutions in Australia.
33:45
Innocent people. have been injured and killed in some of the attacks that he has organised from jail.
33:54
But he's now been sentenced to life in jail by an Iraqi court. Now, they've ordered the seizure of all his movable and immovable assets. He's been sentenced on charges of drug trafficking. Now, I know you served in Afghanistan, but I can't imagine life in Iraqi jail is going to be all that pleasant.
34:15
No.
34:17
But then again, I'd like to think, whatever terms of his service are, that he doesn't have the ability to still run his empire from a jail. That's right. It's incredible that he can, isn't it? It is. And he's quite young. Yet he was running this massive criminal syndicate from Iraq. and causing huge damage and injury and loss of life to people from over there. So I would like to think foreign affairs officials would check in to see that he doesn't have access to internet or phone in his jail.
34:54
I mean, he's orchestrated, I'm reading from the Australian here, nearly 200 fire bombings, murder of former bikey Sam the Punisher and a fatal arson attack that killed an innocent house sitter. So that suggests that there are dozens of people who he's got working in his employ in Victoria and other parts of Australia as well. You know how the legal system works, I guess, you know, shorter sentence in return for fingering the people here. How does that work?
35:23
Well, ironically, one of the last cabinet meetings that Jacinta Allen had premier was where the police commissioner was there begging for more resources. And instead of approving the plan, they marched him out and had a chat about politics.
35:40
I think it's time where we took this seriously. And if the police need more resources, well, then give it to them. But also make sure that when the laws are there to make sure if someone's found guilty, it's not just a turntable where they're coming straight back out.
35:54
Look, I think you think about these things, you work in the field of law. The thing that disturbs me about it is you read that it goes through a number of different areas. hands and then ends up being contracted out on the dark web. And then whoever buys the hit or whatever it is on the dark web sells it to someone else. By that stage, it's gone through about five or six hands. And it's some mule teenager that thinks, oh, well, I can go and set fire to that tobacco shop. I'll get five grand. And so they're doing it and they're doing the business for this bloke who's a coward.
36:27
And often they find vulnerable people who might have breached conditions of their visa and they say, well, if I now have proof of you breaching your visa, you keep acting for me as one of my employees or you'll be out of the country. So it's this horrible, horrible connection between organised crime and the migration system that really needs to be clamped down upon.
36:52
I want to take that up with you in just a moment. At 10 to 9, our News Hour guest here on this Tuesday night is Keith Wallaghan. Lots of feedback coming here as well. Let's come back in a moment. But that issue of immigration, I was going to take up some of what you've just said because there's a point here and it does go to policy and it is quite important.
37:15
Six to nine. Of course, we've got our TV guru joining us after 10 o'clock. And of course, the network's reigning and resident expert on superannuation matters, Joel Hardy from Jacaranda, joins us in the next hour. It's compulsory listening for all of you who need to know about your superannuation. So he'll be in the house in the next hour. Just on those comments you made about the illegal immigrants that are in the... exhausted all the avenues of appeal. At one point it was as high as 100,000, Keith Wallahan. It's now we think maybe 70,000, 75,000. A lot of those people disappear in the community, get exploited by criminals and others.
37:48
Pauline Hanson, I think a week and a half ago, said that she would expel the illegal immigrants and have a mass deportation. But Angus Taylor outlined a policy, what, two months ago, and it had a lot more detail, saying exactly the same thing, that if you're not here legally, you should go.
38:07
And there shouldn't be anything controversial about that. We're either a sovereign nation that has laws that are enforced, or they don't mean anything. If you cannot deport someone who has broken our laws and doesn't meet the criteria, then what's the point of them? And that Kazim Hamad, who's just been in prison in Iraq, he's a classic example. He was born in Iraq in 1984 and came to Australia. And clearly clearly uh was not adding value to our country uh became a criminal a serious criminal and was deported um no no one marched in the street saying that was some sort of injustice i think any reasonable person would say of course you would do that it's it's it's it's a privilege not a right to come to australia And so if we could do that for him, if there's others like that, well, off they go.
38:59
It's just a matter of moving through the red tape and the bureaucracy. I think another part of it, though, is that there's an incentive built in for appeals and constant appeals to the administrative system to clog the courts and the tribunals for many years. So we've got to try and make that more efficient.
39:18
Yeah. All right.
39:21
So that is true. And that requires, well, you know better than I do, get the courts moving more quickly. And for those of us looking on the outside, when we hear that there's a case, the trials will start in 18 months time, we often go, why? Because the courts are clogged, I'm guessing, and they move very, very slowly.
39:42
The courts are doing their best in difficult circumstances, but I think where there's a category of appeal, where the prospects are, you know, 1% are successful in their appeal, that sounds like the process itself is the outcome that has been sought rather than a legitimate appeal.
39:58
Keith, as always, great to talk to you. We'll do it again very soon when you're in Sydney, where we're broadcasting from. Come and see us in the studio. Thank you so much for that tonight.
40:09
We have the news coming up at nine o'clock and then our superannuation and finance clinic after this.
40:27
Now it's back to John Stanley right across Australia.
40:32
Good evening, everyone. Welcome along. Welcome to our big hour coming up. Later on, we do health and this business of long COVID, it is real. And there's some work been done on long COVID. So I'll bring you some news on that. We've got our TV guru joining us next. And of course, our network's resident expert on superannuation right around the country. I know people mid-north coast everywhere. They tune in on Tuesday night with their pens and notepads.
40:57
Get the information you need, our little superannuation clinic as I refer to it. We're doing that shortly. We'll keep across what's happening in Japan. There has been these earthquakes. They are saying that there hasn't been no impact on the nuclear facilities. In fact, no injuries, but... Given the history, there's obviously concern. So we'll keep across all of that for you. And thanks for all the feedback also in relation to the conversation we had with Keith Wallaghan. You can find that on our website as a podcast.
41:28
Keith is always one of our sought-after guests in the news hour. And I'm looking forward to talking to him again about some of those issues, particularly on the immigration one and illegal immigration and exploitation of people, which is unconscionable. 1-3-1-8-7-3 is our number. 0-4-6-0-8-7-3-8-7-3. Nine past nine right now. Now on Knights, it's time for the Financial Planning Show.
41:55
Thanks to Jacaranda Financial Planning.
41:58
Get organised and informed.
42:00
Book your place at Jacaranda Financial Planning's free seminar. Call 1-800-40-2610.
42:08
Yes, the man with all the answers, Joel Hardy from Jacaranda with us. Of course, we've been doing this for years. You, before that, we had, of course, Brett, where we used to have some fun talking about gambling and the like, but it's been a long tradition here on a Tuesday night. So if you've got any questions at all, 131873, you can text 0460873873. As we do say, we are providing here tonight general advice and information only on Always encourage listeners to get personal advice to ensure their personal objectives, overall financial situation, and needs are considered.
42:43
All of that said, Joel, good evening. Hello. How are you? I've got one. Look, we've had a lot of volatility. There's a lot to talk about in terms of news, but I want to go straight to something. I'm getting two different messages from our listeners about the comments that were being made by the Prime Minister. He had this gathering with a lot of very... rich people involving the head of the commonwealth bank and others and he was talking about superannuation the big big pool of funds there and the possibility of accessing those funds for nation building you know pushing the funds into investing in some of these big nation building projects now people saying well what if i don't want to do that what if i don't want to have my money invested there it's my money yeah so what's your thought on that and if people want to avoid it if it does happen can they
43:29
You certainly can avoid it, yes. So, in any case, you're going to have choice.
43:33
And I've heard what the Prime Minister said in the past about this in terms of nation building. And I think there was one idea at one point to build more homes as well, John. So, there was a housing supply element to this as well. But essentially, yes, you do have choice. You have choice with anything when it comes to super. And you may choose to set up your own self-managed fund. You may choose to invest in a larger fund just in specific types of areas. It might be international shares, domestic shares, that sort of thing.
44:05
Where you would have this sort of – I don't want to call it a mandate, but where you would have – funds that are then used to put into these nation-building type projects would be in a large pooled fund where they have a blended portfolio. It might be balanced, it might be diversified, it might be growth, something like that. And the fund, the investment team in the fund makes the decision to go and invest directly as a pooled investment into one of these nation-building projects.
44:34
If you don't obviously want to be a part of that, then you could obviously go in and choose and select your own individual assets and investments, and that would be done in accordance with your wish.
44:46
So that's where you think it's likely to go?
44:49
Well, I don't know exactly what will come out of all of this because the whole housing one sort of came and went. And then now you're hearing about nation building. I'm assuming they're talking about infrastructure and things like that. Look, super funds have a really clear mandate under what's called the CIS Act. And they refer to a thing in the CISAC called the sole purpose test. The sole purpose test is designed to basically ensure that a member's money is invested in the most prudent way, beneficial way, and it has to directly align to the benefit of the member and their beneficiaries.
45:29
Yeah. Now, it would be hard under the sole purpose test to have a sort of a band-aid or not a band-aid, but, you know, a catch-all when it came to infrastructure and nation-building projects, I would think. So, it's probably easier said than done.
45:46
But if you do want choice, then certainly have that choice. Yep.
45:49
there's a nation building project comes to mind which i might raise in a moment but chris is on the line this is one of these questions it comes up a lot and something that i think is uh one of those things we need to keep stressing chris off you go okay i i'm um over 80 years of age i've just recently retired now i haven't been able to put
46:11
anything into super of my own contributions since the age of um 75 and i think that's grossly unfair because um i my employer is still contributing to super and in fact as a side i'm still on long service leave for the next year and a half but um um which i'll get full pay for but um You know, it just seems I would have liked to perhaps put a bit more in because I had to take, unfortunately, I had to take some out of Super to rescue a property development that went wrong and not through my fault.
46:49
I was cheated. But anyway, that's the way of it. And I would have liked to have made that back up again.
46:56
Yeah, yeah. It's a tough one. It's a tough one, Chris.
46:59
Why do they do it? That's what I want to know. Why? Why?
47:01
Look, my understanding is they do it to essentially not deprive you in those latter years, but deprive people of a tax concessional environment. Really, when you look at the way that minimum pension payments are paid out of super, as you get older, you're forced to take more money from it. When you get to 85, you're going to be forced to take even more out. So the idea is to run down the balance sheet over time and therefore not then pass that money on to beneficiaries.
47:33
That's the intention of the way the whole thing was designed. So it is, look, it certainly is frustrating. And I hear it across the board from people. It is frustrating for people who can't contribute to super anymore. The only exception would be downsizing your primary place of residence if you do choose to do that.
47:51
If you access, Chris, I think that's one you can do, I think, the 300.
47:56
The 300,000, the downsizer contribution, yes. Yeah.
48:00
You're aware of that one, Chris?
48:02
No, I'm not. I'm sorry. I don't have a primary place of residence. Okay.
48:07
Yeah.
48:08
Do you own a property, Chris, and you've owned it for longer than 10 years, and have you lived in that particular investment property or something like that, external to maybe where you live now?
48:20
No, I don't. I'm going to have to go into some sort of facility, I think.
48:27
You know what, Chris's point? Can I say this? I reckon this is a loophole that they haven't thought through because what Joel is saying about, you know, essentially you've got to run down your super, but there are going to be increasing numbers of people still working past 75, as Chris has, who they don't want a huge amount. He just wants to be able to put some in super. That's what you're saying, isn't it, Chris? You want to be able to put something in there.
48:49
I'm no millionaire. I just have a regular job. They always talk about the top 5%, and I'm nowhere near that. I'm a very ordinary person. I don't own a property, unfortunately. I was chipped out of it, and I would have liked to have made life just a little bit of prejudice because I've got to find somewhere to live that I can afford to live, and that'll be probably one of those...
49:15
miserable double garage things that, you know, that'll be it. But, you know, I would have liked the opportunity at least.
49:22
Look, hopefully it doesn't come to that, Chris, but I think one of the problems with the system as it stands is it was designed back in 1993 where there was probably very few people working beyond particularly 70, 75 and even 80.
49:39
Whereas now, either through cost of living or through just people's longevity improving, health improving, maybe in older age, but also, of course, they get fulfillment from work. And all of a sudden, you're coming up against these rules that were written 35 almost years ago. So, that's probably part of the challenge that maybe the system needs to be relooked at regularly.
50:03
Just in relation to Chris, can I say, if you were advising someone like Chris and he said, well, I'd like to build up a pot, 100, 200, 300, 400. So we're talking in that band, say under 500,000.
50:15
If you invested to generate something of an income, combine it with a pension, the tax on the – would it be – what would the tax situation be with that, leaving aside the fact that he can't put – It's not in super, it's outside super.
50:28
It would really depend. I mean, you've got things like investment bonds, which can be invested into at any age. They have concessional rates of tax when you hold those bonds for longer than, say, an eight to 10-year period. They can actually have quite favourable tax concessions beyond eight to 10 years.
50:46
They're an alternative to super in some respects.
50:50
Outside of that, it would just be purely investing in your own name. If you don't have a great deal of taxable income and you have franking credits in the mix, John, with, say, Australian shares and that sort of thing, that can be a reasonably good avenue to invest in as well. They're not going to be as tax-effective as super, but it really depends on your circumstances.
51:10
If he wants to ring us back, because he's gone now, he sounds a bit despondent, but from what you're saying, there are things you can do.
51:18
to minimise your tax and do it outside super that may be able to be done. Yeah, there are. If you wanted to ring us back and give us an email, maybe give us a bit more detail of what he's circum... He doesn't have to. And we'd keep it generic and maybe get an answer next week about... Because there might be more people like that in that situation.
51:35
Oh, it probably would be. I mean, we've taken a few calls over the years, or not even over the years, over the last few months on this sort of topic. And, yeah, it's very restrictive beyond that 75-year... See, I think that...
51:47
think that's an outdated limit because i think there's as you said there'll be people who got to keep topping it up and topping it up but then there are people who just need to get something there and they look and think well i think i've missed the boat here and why why why can't i because of just the fact that i'm older yeah and particularly people who have owned businesses yeah and i see it all the time where you've had people who have owned businesses they haven't
52:12
actively put money into super because they've concentrated on growing the business uh they've concentrated on maybe paying down their mortgage and all that sort of thing and then it gets to a point where they're retiring out of the business but they don't have all this time left to be able to whack money in like we all did as employees for example so so it does it does create a dilemma yeah and
52:31
And it does reinforce something that we, I don't know, you must meet people all the time who say, oh, you can't put money in super after 75, apart from the downsizing. And so it's worth what we do here is we keep saying 75's the cutoff. You need to know.
52:46
Even some of my own clients, you know. I mean, I've got a handful of clients who are over 75 and they would love to put money in super. And they can't.
52:53
If we get his details, and maybe he could email us a bit more, and you can have a look, see maybe what might be available, because I think that could be something for quite a few listeners, and you do get the impression it's one of those holes in policy, and there probably aren't enough people like that for any of the seniors' organisations to take it up for them, because they're still trying to sort out aged care and all the rest.
53:14
There's a lot of different competing interests. Yeah, yeah.
53:18
Maybe they're listening to us in Canberra.
53:19
You never know.
53:21
And maybe a bit of common sense. You never know. Just on the markets, because... And after the break, I want to get your thoughts, because you met quite a few people today. You had a daytime seminar. But the market's still very, very volatile. So... And there are... I mean, AMP's been going well...
53:37
SpaceX not going so well. So what's your assessment today?
53:41
Yeah, the markets are volatile. And there's, I mean, a number of factors at play at the moment. There's obviously things like the oil price shooting up and down. You've had obviously, you know, the RBA worried about where inflation's going as well.
53:58
And some of Michelle Bullock's comments today around inflation also falling living standards in the economy and productivity or lack thereof. So it's a range of these things. It's obviously then, too, John, the whole AI race and are companies putting in too much money into the infrastructure? Is it going to pay off over time? Are these businesses going to generate the profits and the revenues that they think they need to generate and so on? So it is volatile. But when you look at a long period of time, a long window of time, and don't forget, we're in the fourth year of this bull market, really, as it stands.
54:29
Mm-hmm. You do see a very, very clear trend of where you invest in growth businesses and growth assets. It tends to outperform others over time. I mean, the US share market's a great example of that. It's just shot the lights out. So, look, if all things come in equals, then you should have a continuation of the bull market. But any one of these things can tip things over the edge, like what we've seen with the oil price, for example.
54:55
All right. Now, here's one for you.
54:59
people are getting a job in P&G tax-free. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I heard about that. I heard about a couple of famous names. You're being paid $1.4 million to play rugby league, and it's tax-free. Now, I have noticed a bit of talk about this, and this question has come from Tony. So it's tax-free in P&G.
55:17
You're not paying any tax there. But if you, say, do two years there, or if you're Zach Lomax, you probably do six months. So you might come back with 700 grand for your six months tax-free, but then you come back into Australia with your 700. Yes. Do you pay tax on that?
55:33
No. You don't? No, you don't, no, because you've earned it in a foreign jurisdiction. Right. And it's ordinary income.
55:39
Because a lot of people on Facebook, I think, have been saying, oh, these people are going to get hit with tax.
55:43
No, it's the same as if you went and worked in Dubai. And let's say you worked in Dubai. I know a handful of people who worked over there earned US dollars tax-free for quite a few years.
55:53
And that money is, if there's no tax earned on ordinary income in the jurisdiction that you're a resident of at the time, that is what it is. It becomes savings in a bank account or investments or capital in nature because you save that money up over time. then if you bring that back to Australia, that's a slightly different matter. But the income itself that you've earned is not. No, it's taxed in the jurisdiction that you're based in.
56:18
Can I ask you a question? Because it's a popular cliche. I wouldn't even know what the place looks like. We all know about the Cayman Islands. As I assume, the Cayman Islands are pretty well anything goes, no rules in terms of the Cayman Islands. Yeah.
56:35
Yeah, well, that's my understanding. A lot of shell companies operate out of it.
56:38
So, you didn't look to me like you knew very much about it, and that's a good thing.
56:41
Yeah, I don't know much about it. It's a completely different part of the world, but a lot of shell companies run out of the Cayman Islands. A lot of companies do shift profits through the Cayman Islands as well, and that's obviously a tax haven. Yeah. These things, we call them tax havens, right? So I don't know if P&G is actually a tax haven. I think, haven't they done a deal with the league players?
57:03
I see. It's a deal with the rugby league players and the government. It's a deal that they've done directly. But I think under those circumstances, they're not paying Pac-Binagini tax. They don't have to pay tax here. Well, there you go.
57:14
Unless someone is an accountant that reckons under the circumstances and under the terms of the deal, because they're living in a compound, I think they're clear. I think they'll be right. Look, your seminar today, you had a daytime seminar. We did, yes. Lots of people came along. Yes, yes. You just go along to the seminar, tea and biscuits, and then all that we talk about here in much more detail.
57:36
That's right. That's right. So are you having your next one on the 18th of August? Yes. 18th of August, it's a 6pm start this one, so it's back to an evening.
57:43
And it's at Pitt Street, so 123 Pitt Street, jacarandafp.com.au to book for that or 1-800-40-2610, completely free to attend.
57:53
Easy as that.
57:54
At 25 past nine now.
57:56
We are talking superannuation and finance here with Joel Hardy from Jacaranda Financial Planning. Look, this is an interesting one because this is a 45-year-old working full-time in the public sector, has 420K in their super account. It's all in high growth with AWARE. So high growth is second highest, is it, in terms of growth or...
58:18
Well, of their blended funds, it's the highest level. The only higher levels would be if you go direct shares. So you say, okay, I just want international shares and nothing else.
58:28
He says, should I be looking to switch some or all of my super to maximise return before I retire? I plan to hopefully retire at 70. So he's saying he wants to, he's asking whether he should even turbocharge the high growth. He's 45.
58:40
I mean, high growth's pretty high. I mean, if we look on a risk spectrum, you're typically looking at somewhere between 95% and 100% of your money is either in Australian shares, international shares, infrastructure or property. So, you're already really at that aggressive level.
58:56
Their high growth fund, I just had a look, it's returned 9.2% annualised over the last 10 years. It's a pretty good return. Now, if I do some simple maths and you then say, okay, well, if you get that same thing for the next 25 years, so simple interest, not compound here, simple, your balance is going to be around a million by the time you get to 70.
59:15
That's $420,000 without any extra contributions, you're saying?
59:17
Without any extra contributions, which I would be shocked.
59:19
You've left out the $30,000.
59:20
I've left out the $30,000. I've left out everything. And so I'd be shocked if there was no contributions nor taking into account compound interest. So really, already where you're situated is an aggressive fund. The only way you could go more aggressive would be to move directly into things like international shares and have a purely international share-based portfolio. The only risk with that is that there's currency in the mix. So, if the US dollar falls against the Australian dollar or vice versa or our peer currencies in the trade-weighted indices… That can have an impact on the return and it could be a negative impact.
59:56
So, look, I mean, a high growth fund that's run by a professional team there, it's already very aggressive. So, and again, I mean, it's 25 years to work. I would think that that's probably where you want to be anyway.
60:10
Anthony from Ashgrove, excess concessional contributions by $7765 for the second year in a row. So they've put $30,7765. That's for the last financial year. So that's $7765 over. My super balance is over $600,000. I've lodged my tax return for 2025-26. So can they get the money back?
60:32
Normally you have an option, Anthony. So normally you have the option to, A, withdraw the excess and take it out of super completely. So you get it back. You pay the difference in the marginal tax rate between what you would have paid and the 15% in super.
60:51
The other alternative is you have the option to leave it in super. It gets treated as a non-concessional contribution, and again, you still have to pay that tax difference. So the ATO should write to you and give you an option of the two. Do you want to withdraw it, pay the tax, or do you want to keep it in super, treat it as a non-concessional contribution, and pay the tax?
61:11
Okay, all right. Hopefully that helps with that one.
61:15
Then there's this one here just talking about...
61:18
In five years, as Elon Musk has made a prediction, in five years, a billion AI robots will replace most human jobs. Money will flow to humans, free to give us all great lifestyles. I think that was part of his conversation he had with the Financial Times, saying there'll be no credit cards. In five years' time, no credit cards, because money will just be flowing to all of us, and the robots will be doing all the work. Exactly.
61:41
Is there any evidence that Elon's premonitions could come true? Well, who knows?
61:45
Well, he's had premonitions before. I mean, some of them have come true and some of them haven't. So this one's probably...
61:51
This one would rely on a lot of things stacking up all at once, I would think. So you'd have to have industrial-scale factories. You'd have to have... Abundant energy. You'd have to have all sorts of things, I imagine. But look, he's very bright. Never underestimate him. If anyone can get it going, it's probably him.
62:12
Well, Reg might be a lawyer. I don't know. Reg might be a lawyer who's decided that in five years' time, he's going to run a class action on behalf of all the people who decided, well, I don't own your super. I don't need a house because I'm going to have just money flowing. I'll be able to live my life and everyone will look after me. And so he'll take class action against Elon Musk because he told them you won't need a credit card.
62:33
Well, it's interesting. I mean, on a different note, the outgoing CEO of Macquarie Bank...
62:40
She's been... I think she's either been... Not gifted. Gifted's not the right word. But she's received $880-odd million worth of Macquarie shares. And I was having a conversation with someone today that said that... They said, oh, she doesn't own a house. She rents. So, she rents. Rents and then, obviously, has all her shares and money tied up. And I just sort of stood there for a minute and thought, gee, that's going against the grain, isn't it? It's... I mean, any... I guess the point I'm making is anything can happen to anyone at any time and, you know, smart people are smart people.
63:13
They are. Macquarie Bank, of course, we were talking earlier about public infrastructure and public investment in infrastructure. So maybe around about, what, 2003, you might have thought Macquarie would be a good investment because they've just done a deal to buy Sydney Airport, which they bought, Monopoly, and the Howard government sold it. And then they did a deal where if there was ever a second airport in Sydney, they would have to build it. And so, you know, they weren't going to build one that was going to be competing with them.
63:46
And that took about 10 years to unpick.
63:49
And they're no longer involved in Sydney Airport. But Sydney Airport, cash cow, the money they charge for parking.
63:56
Yeah, but even a less sexy thing that they've done is simply move in a fairly aggressive way into the mortgage markets and rode that rising tide of house prices. And then to back that up, really place attractive rates on deposits. I'm a big fan of Macquarie. I think that they've run a really good business and certainly there's a lot of things going right. Done very well.
64:21
Just quickly, the budget top-up tax. This is all we can continue in conversation about what's happened in the wake of the budget. What's the latest there?
64:27
It mainly affects retirees where you have no taxable income and in the new world where 1 July 2027 rolls around, you start to generate gains in that new regime I talk about on the show. Basically, over time, because there's a floor of 30% tax for those gains from 1 July of 2027 next year, then over time what will happen is if you're retired earning no taxable income... And you sell, say, $20,000 worth of shares.
65:00
And assume you bought the shares for $1 and you sold them for $20,000 a share, for example. Currently, you would pay almost no tax on the gain because it's below the thresholds. and there's a 50% discount and all that sort of thing. But beyond 1 July of next year, that 30% floor in tax will apply. So that $20,000 gain, assuming you made it all under the new rules, well, then you would pay, what, $6,500 in tax, something like that. So it is a bit of a sneaky thing in there that's going to affect people, like all of these budget changes will affect people.
65:39
Of course, of course. Okay, look, as always, it's been fantastic tonight. Anthony from Ashgrove's happy. We're going to try and see the fellow with the post-75 contributions. I think there's a broader question that he might be representative of, so we might try and just get some examples of what you can do outside Super for him and others if they want to try and do that. And your next seminar, Tuesday the 18th of August, that's 6 o'clock, Mum, at Pitt Street in the City. That's correct. Yep.
66:07
Easy. 131873 is the number. A couple of things. Just quickly, as we finish up here, someone's saying here that... Where is it? Someone's saying that America taxes all expats' earnings on top of the country's tax system.
66:22
Yeah, they tax on citizenship, though. So the US and Eritrea are the only two countries in the world that tax you based on citizenship. They also look at worldwide income. So if you're an American citizen living here in Australia... they will count your income derived here for the purposes of the federal taxes based back there. So it's a bit different.
66:42
We'll do this again next week.
66:43
Thank you, John. Thank you so much.
66:44
There he is, the superannuation expert here on our network. He's been doing it for many, many years. Joel Hardy from Jacaranda Financial Planning back with us next week. And if you've got any questions, more complicated ones, shoot them through on the email and then we can do them next Tuesday night in our superannuation clinic. 23 to 10 now.
67:02
131873 is the number. We talk about your financial health, of course, with our finance clinic every Tuesday night with Joel Hardy. And we then talk about your physical health. And tonight, I just want to touch on long COVID. Now, there are people who say long COVID actually isn't a thing. I know enough people who've been very badly debilitated by long COVID. And some work's been done on all of this. And I spoke earlier to one of the... one of the researchers in all of this. This is Professor Byrne.
67:33
This is Anthony Byrne. He's at the St Vincent's Hospital, University of New South Wales. So they put this research out showing that 70% of people have had COVID, say long COVID's negatively affected their physical health. It's affected their mental health. One in three of these people, this is vulnerable Australians, have experienced symptoms for more than a year.
67:56
Then you've got things like breathing difficulties and cognitive impairments. So this is this long COVID. So I spoke with them about all of this earlier today just to find out what we're talking about here, whether you can identify it and critically what you can do because it doesn't sound like...
68:12
There's a cure. So this is the conversation I had with Anthony Byrne earlier this evening. Good evening, John. Just kick off with long COVID. How do you know or can you tell whether what you've got is long COVID?
68:26
Yeah, you can know. I mean, there is a case definition that's been around for about five years now. So if you've had COVID and basically you haven't gotten better and you've got persistent symptoms of more than three months, and they're not otherwise explained by something else, then that's long COVID, essentially. And there's some common symptoms that we can talk about.
68:46
Yeah, just go through those for us, please.
68:48
Yeah, so the most common would be fatigue. And lots of your listeners would probably be fatigued at this time of the day if they've had a hard day at work. But what we're talking about is something that's over and above what people usually experience day to day. And it's overwhelming fatigue. You know, it really impacts on their day-to-day ability to do things that they want to do. So fatigue is the most common.
69:09
Breathlessness is another really common symptom, shortness of breath, breathlessness, difficulty breathing, and then, you know, difficulty concentrating and, you know, so-called brain fog. But it's cognitive dysfunction. It's an inability to manage complex tasks. And if you're someone that's doing complex tasks in your work or other work, day-to-day activities, that can be a big deal if you can't do that. So they're probably the three most common symptoms.
69:37
Look, I mentioned this cough that I've had. To me, it's a chest cold, and it feels like a chest cold, and these things, they can linger for a while after you've had them while you're trying to recover. Because I don't want to understate what you've just described, because overwhelming fatigue and the inability to do complex tasks, that can be quite debilitating.
69:58
Absolutely. Yeah. And cough's another common one, as you say. So SARS-CoV-2 virus, it's a respiratory virus that affects the inside of the airways and the lungs. And that inflammation can typically cause a cough and sputum production if you've got acute COVID. But it can persist. So the virus goes, but the inflammation stays and it can end up causing cough and problems that last for, as you say, weeks, but in fact, sometimes months. and it can flare other common respiratory conditions.
70:29
Some of your listeners will have asthma or COPD. And so this is a virus that can flare those conditions up and it can also create those conditions or at least asthma. So people can end up with asthma that they had, you know, maybe as a kid. They sort of thought they grew out of it and then they get COVID and then it flares up their asthma and they have this chronic cough. So that's certainly something that we see a lot of and we have seen for the past five.
70:52
It will be someone who's got COVID and there'll be people saying, well, what about people who've been, had the vaccine, they then get COVID and would that be a factor as well?
71:00
Yeah, absolutely. So, I mean, having COVID previously and having vaccination previously does offer you some protection. And luckily, we're not getting as many people who end up in hospital with severe COVID and respiratory failure, hypoxia, pneumonitis. That's not happening as often. Still happens, though, I must say, but not nearly as often. But what can happen is that you end up with these sort of respiratory symptoms or other whole body symptoms. And that's what this research, this new research that's come out as showing that one in six vulnerable Australians experienced long COVID symptoms that had a significant impact on both their mental health and their physical health.
71:41
Yeah, and I guess like COVID, there are different degrees, but at its worst, and I know one person who's been completely smashed by it, but very, very difficult for a very long time. So the obvious follow is if you think you've got long COVID, what can you do? Is there a treatment? Is there a way of dealing with it?
71:57
Well, the first thing to do, I guess, is to think about when you've got a respiratory infective illness. And, you know, it's good to get a diagnosis if you're crook. So think about getting a rapid antigen test, go along, get PCR tested if you're able to do that. And then you can access care if that's appropriate initially. But yeah, if you've got these symptoms that have persisted, certainly go and have a chat to your healthcare professional, maybe a GP. And someone that's interested in your health, and you've obviously got interest in your health, but you want to sort out what's going on.
72:30
And there can be some simple tests that can be done to work out why you're fatigued. Have you got iron deficiency? Have you got diabetes you didn't know about? Have you got kidney problems? Or is it unexplained? And in fact, you had that COVID a couple of months ago, and maybe it's persistence after that.
72:46
If it is COVID persisting, does that then show up in PCR tests or rapid antigen tests, whether it does or whether it doesn't? The other part of that is, can you treat the COVID specifically? Can you do something to restrain it?
72:59
Yeah, so acutely you can. So if you've got acute viral infection with COVID and you're eligible based on PBS prescribing, there might be some interventions and antivirals that can be prescribed at that point. But the problem is that if you don't know about that, you don't get that diagnosis, then you have to sort of think two to three months later, could I have had something two or three months ago? And you sort of missed the boat a little bit. But nonetheless, you can still get some tests done. The PCR test won't be positive at that point in most people because the virus is gone.
73:32
And where the symptoms come from, and this is something that some people don't understand, I guess, but the virus is gone, but the immunological response, the body's immune response is changed. And so it's that persistence of this immune response in some individuals that's contributing and causing the symptoms of long COVID.
73:54
All those other things, diabetes, you may have problems in different parts of your body, you get all that checked and it's found that the cause of what you are feeling is long COVID. I know there are antivirals, but is there something or are you just stuck with it?
74:07
It's something that certainly requires more research and there is a lot of research going on, but it's very tricky. There's some pathways that have been identified in the research that are overactive. So, for example, some of those pathways involved in histamines, They're overactive. And so some people have looked at maybe some treatments that target those pathways.
74:30
But there's no sort of thing to tell your listeners, I guess, is that there's no one diagnostic test. So you actually need a healthcare professional or a doctor to think about, take a history and come up with a diagnosis. And then how do we treat it? Well, we have to think about all those things that could be in your health, and that are happening now that are contributing to your symptoms. So one common one, particularly in young people, is it affects their sleep and they get fatigued. They start sort of having an altered sleep-wake cycle.
75:00
They start sleeping in the afternoon and they can't sleep at night. And so if you don't have a good sleep routine, for example, that's going to make you fatigue worse. If you've got underlying sleep apnea that you never knew about, that's going to be a factor as well. So there's lots of things that can be done to make you feel better, although they're not specifically prescribed and targeting the long COVID itself.
75:23
Still trying to work out what to do about the long COVID and how to fix it, in inverted commas, as we lay people would say. But just knowing that what you're going through might be long COVID, maybe a combination of things, go and get medical advice. Because some people might think, well, long COVID is not a thing. It is a thing and they should go and get advice.
75:42
That's exactly it. So what this research has also shown is that the people that were vulnerable didn't think they were.
75:49
So that's one thing. They didn't recognise that they were actually at risk. And that's just sometimes it's based on your date of birth. So if you're over 70, that actually puts you in that category.
76:00
And the other thing to say is that they also had difficulty accessing care.
76:05
So that if you don't have a healthcare provider that believes you, that makes your life a lot harder. Or if you've got difficulty in where you're living or how you get in and see your health provider because there's a long waiting list, that makes it tricky as well, obviously.
76:20
Anthony Byrne, great to talk to you. Let's hope we're talking maybe down the track when we're always looking for the silver bullet in the media, of course, but I guess you'd like to have one too, wouldn't you?
76:28
Oh, I'd love a pill to take to fix this problem. It'll be good. Thank you for your time. Thanks so much.
76:32
Yes, Professor Anthony Byrne. So look, I went through a lot of that, but the answer I think for people who are dealing with this is you get a diagnosis, you get some sort of treatment, but ultimately they're still trying to find a way to stop it, which if you are going through that would be an absolute nightmare. Ten and a bit minutes to ten now.
76:54
Seven minutes to 10 is the time. Look, we just talked about long COVID, which does affect a lot of people. And we were talking earlier in the hour when we talked superannuation with Joel Hardy, just about the people, for instance, people who might've got to 80, they've only just retired, got next to nothing in their super and they can't put any more in because of the rules. So often when there's not a lot of people affected, relatively speaking, there isn't as much action. I mention it because I've been wanting to do a bit on this and I know on Sunday night, 60 minutes did a story about sarcoma.
77:25
Now, this is Sarcoma Awareness Month, and I know we talked about this last year, but the Cooper Rice Braiding Foundation, a good friend of mine, is always giving me a little bit of a needle about this, because it's a real...
77:44
tragic story about a young man who was full of life, playing sport had everything ahead of him and then was diagnosed with this very rare form of cancer and he battled to the end and now his family set up this foundation which means they have to relive all of this but they're doing it to try and raise money and raise awareness of what is a relatively rare cancer so that others don't have to go through the journey. So as I say I know Peter Overton is very much involved with this. There was a story on Sunday night on 60 Minutes.
78:15
And so what I can do, and they've got a website, the Cooper Rice Braiding Foundation, which has videos and stories of this young man, things that are being done, because ultimately we talk about a lot of dreadful conditions that affect people. But when it's one of these rarer ones, it is very hard to get as much money as you can for the research.
78:40
And so they want to essentially deal with something that, as they say here, changes lives in the blink of an eye. They want to raise awareness of sarcoma. I hadn't heard of it until it was brought to my attention by my friend. And then, you know, 60 Minutes now talks about it. They want to fund clinical research to find a cure for sarcoma. And when you hear it, you think, well, surely we're a big enough country to be able to put enough money into research. But then you think about brain cancer and motor neurone disease and all these other conditions and breast cancer and prostate cancer.
79:14
So all competing for funding for research. So I bring it forward. You can have a look. CRBF, it's a website that has so much information there. You can go and have a look. At the very least, it increases awareness. And if you can do anything to help, and we'll try and keep in touch with them because they are doing some really, really good work. And they've got a program now to help those who are diagnosed and their families as well, which again is really important because those people can feel very alone, not even knowing what they're talking about.
79:48
So it is the Cooper Rice Braiding Foundation University. You hear the story of this young man, you hear the family's tributes to this young man, and you hear of the efforts being made again to deal with this another wicked condition that does claim young lives too early. One day all of that might be gone, but right now we do have to live with it. So as you say, CRBF, the Cooper Rice Braining Foundation is the name. Three and a half to ten now.
80:15
We have the news. We have the brain game coming up. Very interesting brain. I've run my brain game question past half a dozen people here. They don't know the answer. There you go. Let's see if you can come up with it. Plus our TV clinic coming up straight after this.
80:35
Now it's back to John Stanley right across Australia.
80:59
Evening everyone, welcome along. It is now 7 minutes past 10. It is Tuesday night. We've got our TV clinic about to start. Have you done? I've had my producers essentially flooding Rob McKnight with text messages and notes and emails trying to distract him, hoping he doesn't remember something. So I know some of you might have an idea about this.
81:22
This could be unbearable. So I'm hoping, I'm hoping he's been, he's a very busy man. He'll be joining me very, very shortly. There's also a, look, there's another poll. I'm only mentioning it because Sky every couple of weeks brings out their poll on voting intentions. So for what it's worth, they've got Labor's primary vote on 28%, still very low.
81:43
But significantly, they've got One Nation slipping to 25 and the coalition rising to 22, 25-22.
81:49
It's only really a position where the coalition needs to claw itself back up ahead of One Nation. And if they can get ahead of One Nation, and in most of the polls they're still a long way behind, then they harvest the One Nation preferences and that could help them. Even win elections. That's certainly the story in Victoria. So that's the latest for what it's worth. That's the Sky News YouGov poll that's just been released.
82:20
about long COVID and the fact that you get brain fog. Where's this? I had brain fog, so I got some windscreen off my glasses. I remember this is one of our... We've got a lot of comedians listening to our program, so thank you very much for that feedback as well.
82:37
A reminder also, we did mention in the last couple of hours that southern Japan has been hit by a couple of earthquakes. Now...
82:47
There has been some damage. All the nuclear facilities are fine. There hasn't been any injuries at the moment. So there was for a while a tsunami alert, but it's been a big scare. There has been some damage, but we are keeping across that and letting you know what's going on. I'll give you more information on that in the next hour as well. 131873 is the number now. Ten minutes past ten...
83:12
Now it's time for John Stanley's Brain Game. Call now, 131 873.
83:20
Now, tonight, of course, we talk television, so I try and weave a television question into this. And I know people were talking about the goodies.
83:29
I hadn't seen much of the goodies. It was a British TV show. And I'll ask... My guru about this in just a moment, but I then went and had a look at all the list of all the best sitcoms of all time. And most of them had The Simpsons either on top or close to the top. So I thought I'll ask you a question about The Simpsons. And The Simpsons creator was Matt Groening.
83:52
So my question here and...
83:56
You might know this answer, so you can jump on the phone, 131873, and our prize tonight is a 2GB or 4BC prize pack with lots of goodies, plus the John Stanley Mr Magoo mug. Matt Groening, the creator of The Simpsons, I need you to tell me what his father's name is. Obviously, that surname, Matt Groening. So what's his father's name?
84:16
Now...
84:18
There's a reason why I'm asking the question, so you might be able to work it out. And it might even have a link to the very long movie that people are debating all over the place at the moment as well. So that's all I can give you. What is his father's name?
84:33
It's part of a more interesting aspect of Matt Groening and The Simpsons. You tell me his father's name, first person to call through with the answer I'm looking for, which is the correct answer.
84:40
You win the prizes tonight at 12 past 10.
84:43
Right, 12 minutes past 10, Matt Groening is the creator of The Simpsons. What's his father's name, Laurie?
84:49
I think it's Homer. It is Homer.
84:52
It is Homer. His father's name's Homer. His mother's name is Margaret, as in Marge, and his sisters are Lisa and Maggie. So he's used the family. So there you go.
85:05
Well done. Hang on there, Laurie. You've got the prizes tonight. The... You're going to get, I think, yeah, you get the 2GB price pack, cap, all sorts of goodies as well for our prize cupboard, plus the famous John Stanley, Mr Magoo mug. And I was hearing that famous TV theme from that wonderful show, Cheers, and I was thinking, I've got, well, Diane and Rebecca are outside.
85:27
Woody's here pushing the buttons. Cliff Clavin's about to join us for our TV segment.
85:33
And if anyone sends me a text saying, oh, you must be coach. No, thanks.
85:38
12 minutes past 10.
85:48
And now it's time to talk television with our very own TV guru, a man with his finger on the remote, Rob McKnight.
86:03
Good evening and welcome to television.
86:06
Yes, 14 past 10 Tuesday nights. I love this. We never quite know where it's going to go. Who knows? We might talk about the Today Show and Samantha Armitage and you may have an idea of a TV show. You may have seen some sort of snafu on TV. Our man might have seen one as well. Mr Rob McNife, very, very busy man. He's the co-founder of TV Black Box. He's an experienced TV producer. He's been involved in all of the big shows on all of the networks, I think just about. Rob, good evening.
86:33
You called me Cliff.
86:35
Cliff Clavin. No, you're not Cliff Clavin. You're not Cliff Clavin. If someone calls me Coach, that's it.
86:42
So maybe you're right. Cliff was a know-it-all.
86:45
No, that's right. Anyway, Coach is – well, Coach – wouldn't Coach retire at the end of last year? Oh, dear.
86:52
I shouldn't have said that.
86:54
My mate. 131873 – 131873 is the number. 14 minutes past 10 is the time. Can I just kick off just with television?
87:08
We talk a lot about morning television, and it's out of proportion with the viewership of morning TV, but it's important because everyone tells me they make lots of money out of morning TV, the TV networks. Yeah, they do. sunrise has been a phenomenon for channel 7 today makes a lot of money and we know that sam armitage is sitting there in that chair on the today show at the moment and having some say over who she's sitting with what what do you make of all that
87:35
Look, Sam is an amazing performer and I have just loved seeing her in the morning again. Really, it's been a breath of fresh air. Now, do I think she's with the right person? Well, that's another issue. But...
87:51
Look, if Sam was hosting the Today Show with the right person, I think they would be a real challenger to Sunrise.
87:59
Then if you've got the right team, what do you do on the producing front? But I'll put you up on something. The ratings-wise... It reaches around a million people a morning each show. So today's probably about 800,000, Sunrise about a million.
88:16
And you can't judge Sunrise and today on the same metrics as we use in other programs. We use an average. Because the person who sits down to watch a reality TV show is most likely to sit there and watch it for the whole time. With Sunrise and today, they're designed that you only watch them for 15 minutes. So it's like radio in some ways. So, yeah, they've got about a million people watching in the morning.
88:39
Okay. All right. So if you were in charge... They should get you in.
88:44
If you were in charge... Oh, my God, if I was in charge of the Today Show... You'd have her doing it? Sam would be in the chair. I'd be reformatting the whole show to have a point of difference to Sunrise because, to be honest, Today has always been a cheap copy of Sunrise. Now, today had been doing its thing for 30 years or whatever before Sunrise came along. Sunrise reinvented the breakfast format and today has just been playing catch up ever since. They had a lot of success with Carl, but even that didn't propel them to number one.
89:15
So what can you do with the things you can control? Well, you can control the format. I would make it more of a panel discussion format in the morning to have a point of difference to Sunrise. Okay.
89:28
All right. Very good. 131873 is the number. I mentioned The Goodies, and we had, of course, one of the members of The Goodies. I started to think about whether I'd actually watched much of The Goodies. I used to watch The Young Ones, I think came out a bit later, which was quite a wild show of these blokes living in a house. Very different shows. I know. It was very different. Very different shows. I don't think I ever watched any of The Goodies.
89:50
Right. So I'm 53. Okay.
89:52
So kids of my generation, not to say that you're older or anything, but kids of my generation would see The Goodies on ABC TV in the afternoons. You'd get home from school, you'd put on the afternoon show on the ABC and they ran repeats of The Goodies, Doctor Who, there's these institutions that we used to see. And in fact, The Goodies was never a big show in the UK.
90:19
It was much bigger here in Australia, thanks to the repeats. And in fact, the goodies, and by that I'm talking Timbrook Taylor, Graham Garden, and of course, the recently departed Bill Oddy, they would come out and do tours in Australia and say they are much bigger here than they are in the UK. Now, Bill Oddy, though, was slightly different. because he really found his fame in the UK with these wildlife documentaries he was doing. So he used to do things like Bill Oddy Goes Wild, Spring Watch, Autumn Watch, where he would do these bird documentaries and he became known for that in the UK.
90:57
If you have a look at a UK obituary to Bill Oddy and an Australian one, the Australian one will start with the goodies and the other stuff will be mentioned. The UK will start with the birdwatching programs and make a mention of the goodies because it was just never as big.
91:13
Yeah, and they were a team that would go out and do things and take on jobs and do really weird things, wouldn't they?
91:19
had the best theme song and they would ride around on a three-person bike and it was it was slapstick it was crazy no idea was too crazy and bill oddy used to do all the music for it so he was this subversive sort of musician but um they were all very different characters who worked very well together and i'm sure there are listeners who know this show who watch this show um i'm surprised that you're not that aware of it john
91:45
I was aware of it, but it was probably the time I was watching all the political shows and getting myself immersed in politics. It's interesting because there are some shows you don't watch, and I looked it up today, and it was interesting also, though, that it was repeated a bit on the ABC, but it was largely released through DVDs. No, no.
92:10
It was the ABC where it really found its fame. No, I'm talking about later.
92:14
I'm talking about later on.
92:16
Okay. So these shows where you've got, for instance, I can talk to Rebecca and Diane, as I've named them now, out there. I can talk to them about a show like Cheers, which came out before they were born, and they can sit and watch it, and it's all there.
92:30
Yeah, but you watched that pilot episode of Cheers...
92:33
It is the best-made piece of television you will ever see. Every joke lands perfectly. Every beat, the set-up. I mean, it is worth watching that pilot episode again. Just that one, yep. Just for the sheer beauty of it.
92:49
Now... I am, Cliff. I sounded very nerdy there.
92:53
I know, you really, you really, yeah. Oh, John. Hang on, before we get to it, I know what's coming, so I'm trying to put it off as long as possible. I did have one of our listeners who wanted me to go and watch The Odyssey, three hours of it, in 70mm. And I'm reading mixed reviews about it.
93:12
As Nolan intended. Hmm? They have this thing on the internet that you've got to see the Odyssey as Nolan intended because Christopher Nolan wants you to see the 70mm IMAX projection. So you're not a true fan of Nolan if you go and see it in a normal cinema. You've got to see the IMAX. Yep.
93:33
Well, John says he loves DVDs, but I haven't seen it in 70mm. I haven't seen it.
93:39
And I know that's my homework, but there are other things I have to do, and it's three hours, and the more reviews I read, I think I might watch it at home. That is The Odyssey.
93:48
Yeah, I quite like Christopher Nolan films, but this one hasn't grabbed me, but it's doing very well at the box office.
93:55
All right. I need to ask you, because I've got a couple of text messages coming in. It was written up in the media section of The Australian, the claim that Sam Armitage was going to be paired with the Brisbane newsreader Joel Dry on Channel 9, doing very well, and that she said, no, I'd rather be on with Mike Willacy Jr., who I think is doing. Is that correct? Can that happen? That's correct.
94:18
Look, I've got to be honest.
94:21
And look, the reporter, Steve Jackson, is someone I greatly admire and he's usually very much on the money. But it's a big call for a filling presenter to start determining who she's going to sit with.
94:36
When I read that in the media column on Monday in The Australian, I was very perplexed about that because... That is certainly throwing some weight around when you have just entered the building, so to speak.
94:49
Okay. Now, last Tuesday, you spent a fair bit of time boasting about the fact that you'd managed to select Spain to win the World Cup. Now, they were equal favourites with France. See what you do there?
95:03
See how you bring my achievements down by saying, well, they were the favourites.
95:13
We had a large field of countries. It could have been anyone's game. Hungary could have easily won. But no, Spain did, which just happened to be the team I picked.
95:22
You did pick them. I'm lucky. I don't know whether it was when you were working at Studio 10 when Black Caviar was going around and saw you coming in Monday. Oh, Black Caviar again. Oh, thanks. Thank you, Scoop. The point is I've got people now sending me notes because after you selected Spain, they got in on the joke and they said, could he give us a number for the Thursday night Powerball?
95:45
Now, I said last week that I won't come in.
95:50
Can we just go back and have a listen again? Yeah. What happened last week? Congratulations, Rob, on Spain. We're the favourites. Can you continue your winning streak with some numbers on at least one number for the $40 million Powerball this week? Well, one.
96:07
Well, actually, it's not bad. He's asking you to pick just one number, all right? 27. 27, okay. I'm writing that down.
96:20
Could you imagine?
96:22
If 27 comes out, I'll not be here next Tuesday, I can assure you.
96:27
Welcome to tonight's Powerball draw number 1575. First out tonight, we have 12 followed by 27.
96:37
You'll be right with McKnight.
96:40
There's another draw on Thursday night. Can you give us two numbers this week?
96:45
Two. You can't do this. So hang on, we're going to build up to the full round of numbers, aren't we? Yes.
96:52
Maybe I should actually go and have a game before I give numbers to everyone else.
96:59
Give us two. I'll give you a few minutes to come up with two, all right? No, no. I'll give them to you right now. 13 and 28. Okay.
97:08
Oh, dear. I definitely won't be here next week. They're the two numbers that sprang into my mind. I definitely won't be here next week if they come out. Take a break. Come back in a moment. Got questions for you. We've got a bit of television news. We've got some interesting snafu that happened today. We can't call it Sky News anymore. It's now News 24.
97:28
So we'll get to that shortly. But before we do, looking after your family's health got easier, the Witsby range. Now, this is Mr. Vitamins, a great sponsor, Mr. Vitamins. And Witsby, it's W-I-T-S-B-B. It's pronounced Witsby. So you're having a look, you go in there, you have a look around, whether you're supporting growing kids, staying on top of your own wellbeing, or keeping the whole household healthy, Witsby at Mr. Vitamins has you covered. From everyday vitamins to targeted nutritional support for children and adults, there's a Witsby product for every stage of life. Visit your local Mr. Vitamins store where qualified health practitioners and nutrition experts can help you find the right Witsby products for your family's needs.
98:08
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98:32
131873 is the number. 29 and a half minutes past 10 is the time. Look, I've just got a note here from somebody saying I can't understand how those presenters on the Sunrise show are more popular than Carl. And being critical of Matt Shervington, the truth is there's a very big weight of numbers of both shows. Sunrise is a much bigger number, but it doesn't mean there's not a lot of people that prefer the Channel 9 one. That's right. That's right, isn't it?
98:57
Yeah, but in fairness, Sunrise is way ahead of today and that number has grown since Carl left.
99:05
Interesting. Can I say something, John? Oh, yeah, okay. I think I've done myself in because the numbers I gave you, I just realised the Powerball numbers that they put in that audio was 12 and 27 and all I've done is add one digit to each number. I've given you two numbers for the Powerball, 13 and 28. Stick with it.
99:27
Oh, I'm sticking with it, but here's my caveat.
99:30
The first number that popped into my head was 27 again, but I went, no, I've done 27, can't do it. So I'd do 13, 27 and 28.
99:39
You're covering three numbers now.
99:41
All right. No, no, I'm saying, I'm actually doubling down and saying that in the next Powerball you will get 13, 27 and 28.
99:51
You're too embarrassed to ask me to play it, aren't you? You're too embarrassed to think to yourself, oh, I'm too embarrassed to ask you if you've got to play it. Play it now. Go on, play it now. Do it.
100:05
All right, let's just get to, because live television and live radio is hard enough. You've got a big event happening. You've got to jump from place to place. And when there's a political leadership spill, and a lot of them in Australia over the years, just covering it in radio, you've got to have someone near the door who's going to hear the announcement. You've got to have someone else in another spot where there may be information slipped out. You've got to be in about four different places at once.
100:37
Television is even harder because, of course, you've got cameras and pictures you need to deal with. Now, Sky News has transitioned to become News 24. They've got all these news sets. So today – I actually was watching today and – And then when I realised it was going to be a bit drawn out, I switched over and watched the baseball. So I didn't see all of this. But apparently, because they have ads on News 24 as well, so they have to go to ad breaks. And so you're telling me that there was an advertorial or an ad break they had, which then was still running when they confirmed that the new Premier had been anointed.
101:19
Yeah, so we had the big spill in Victoria today where Jacinta Allen was replaced. There was a caucus meeting where the new leader of the Labor Party was chosen. News 24 was covering it all morning. Now look, they usually do a great job with breaking news, but they had a few issues today. First of all, they had an audio issue. Suddenly their crystal clear audio
101:46
started sounding like this and it was really hard to hear.
101:49
Right? But that went on for 6 minutes 48. Really?
101:55
6 minutes 48 before they fixed the problem. Now, if you want to hear what happened, it's all on Media McKnight on YouTube. Just go to the McKnight Tonight YouTube page. But, John, the biggest travesty was that They were in commercial break when the announcement was made about who the new leader was. Now, there's a couple of issues here.
102:20
Everybody knew that they had to make the announcement before midday because parliament was in session at midday.
102:28
Sky News took a commercial break at 11.54 a.m. Now, their commercial breaks are long. They go about five minutes, maybe more.
102:38
So they're in commercial break at 11.57 when the person comes out of the caucus meeting and announces the new Premier of Victoria. It was embarrassing. And the thing that gets me is how did no one tell the line producer, the line producer is the person who runs it, how did they not tell the line producer we're expecting the announcement a few minutes before midday? Probably not a good idea to go to a commercial break. Yeah.
103:07
Breaking news, you don't know when things are going to happen, but that was one element where there was a known quantity where you knew what was going to happen.
103:15
Yeah.
103:15
And I say again, usually Sky News, now News24, are on top of everything. They do a great job. And here I'll leave you with this little tidbit.
103:26
You know the News logo of News24 that News Corp uses?
103:31
That's Rupert Murdoch's handwriting, him writing the word news. Really? Yeah. Wow.
103:37
Okay.
103:39
I could use that as a trivia question tomorrow night. You've just taken it away from me. So News 24. Well, you didn't know it.
103:44
That's actually Rupert Murdoch's handwriting. Wow. Well, why don't you do it as the trivia question tomorrow so that people who were listening to this segment have a leg up?
103:54
It's actually quite a neat little news. Now, here's my question for you.
104:01
Did he offer it up and said, why don't I give you my handwriting? Here it is.
104:07
And they've all gone, sure. Or, because it doesn't look bad. It's not like it's something that's like a dreadful, stinking thing that they're thinking, well, I have to do it because he owns us. It looks good.
104:20
So I don't know how it happened, but I would imagine they were talking logos maybe for News Corp and he said, oh, we just need something like this. And he's written it down and one of his lieutenants has gone, that's it, that's Rupert. We'll immortalise that forever. I don't know.
104:35
I'm just making that up, that part. It's incredible, yeah. So because you talk about logos, just with logos, I was watching, and again, I know we're talking about the minutiae of television. I was watching the other night Channel 7 and their renaissance really started, what, 20 years ago just plus with Sunrise and they had a couple of blockbuster shows and they had some bloke doing all their promos during the tennis. I don't know who he was. But they've now got this red branding. And a seven, which has got a little clip in the top of it, it looks, you can see it's been designed quite cleverly by a graphic artist, that seven.
105:13
Nine's always had the nine with the nine dots. And at some point, someone decided, how many years ago it was, get rid of the nine dots? Because they thought, we'll try and change it.
105:23
That was around 2004. And the big joke was that nine had lost its balls.
105:29
That was the joke within media industry because they got rid of the nine balls. But if you go back historically, nine didn't always have the balls. It was just the nine logo. Then at some point they introduced the nine dots, which you could put those nine dots up anywhere and you knew it was the nine logo. You actually didn't need the nine next to it. So it was quite a bizarre decision when they dropped the balls.
105:55
It was just a big backlash. It didn't work from a marketing point of view. And they eventually, a year or two later, made the decision to bring the balls back.
106:05
Yep. James was the person who asked you to give him the Powerball numbers. He's saying here, 24 hours a day of news except for ads. That's from James.
106:14
Also, just go through some of this. If you're always right, the next Star Wars film, Starfighter, will be a flop or any good. Come on.
106:24
Flop, you're saying it'll be a flop. Do you know what, though, John? I'm not always right. I'm just mostly right. But that's an uneducated guess. I haven't seen the film. I haven't seen a trailer. So I actually shouldn't be flippant and give an answer on that one.
106:38
Anna wants to know, there's a Paramount series called Dalliance. Can you tell us anything about that one? It's a new show on Paramount.
106:47
Yeah, isn't that coming out soon? Look...
106:50
I haven't watched it yet, but to be honest, I don't know much about it. I'll be completely honest.
106:57
Okay, well, you're not going to pretend. Well done. This one here, and a lot of people say this also.
107:05
the television ratings, the television ratings scam, how inaccurate the ratings are. You must get this a lot. So we just go through it again, how they're done and respond to what that person's saying.
107:17
So they reckon it's statistically accurate. So there's about 1,200 boxes in Sydney.
107:24
It may even be more now. And what these boxes do is they connect to TVs at homes around the city.
107:31
and in the suburbs and they're of different demographics. So one might be in a family of five, one might be with a single woman, you know, all those kind of things and different ages. And so basically these people log when they're watching the television and it keeps track minute by minute who's watching the TV and that's how we get it. Now, 1,200, 1,500 people in a city of Sydney, which is what, 8 million people now?
108:00
Yeah.
108:01
may not seem like a lot, but they say it's statistically accurate, especially the way they do it. And at the end of the day, it's the only thing we've got to go on except for the fact we now have the broadcast video on demand figures which are included in the ratings. So if you go and watch a show or if you go and watch 9 now or 10 play or 7 plus, you are actually counted as a viewer. So you watching through the apps actually counts you as a viewer of those shows.
108:30
Yeah. And, well, here's something. So Sky News, now News 24, when they go through Foxtel on the cable and through the satellite dishes – They can't tell how many people are watching, can they? But when they're streaming, so I watch it on binge because you go to binge and you get all the live channels so you can watch Sky News on binge. They would know how many people are watching. They can certainly follow that.
108:54
And Foxtel used to be part of the ratings and so part of Austan, but they're not anymore. And they don't give out any ratings. So the only time they will tell what the ratings were is when they've got a big number, like in a big football game or something like that to skite about.
109:12
Let's take another break. Someone telling me that Eddie Maguire was the boss when Channel 9 dropped the ball. So he had that time as CEO. I think that might be correct, actually. Let's take a break. Come back in a moment. We're talking the world of television. There's a bit more to talk about, including... Yeah, I'm not going to play a trigger warning. The Cole Sandilands thing is going out on his own. I want to ask you about that because he's essentially wanting people to pay for his product. So we'll see what you make of that because there's one aspect I did want to ask you about at 20 to 11.
109:44
16 to 11, we talk television and a lot more things here in this hour with our TV guru, Rob McKnight. Rob, have you sent this one in? Why in the world would anyone watch mainstream media nowadays? YouTube has got so much content, it's all I watch. Now, look, you've got your own show, which is on YouTube, but YouTube has got the Piers Morgan program, which is a phenomenon, and I would urge anyone who wants to see a show where they talk about... Freedom of speech and anything goes.
110:16
He has views from every end of the spectrum and they debate each other. It is really, really worth watching. I don't mind plugging it. He's done a lot. He's done really well out of it. And there's all sorts of stuff on YouTube.
110:26
Yeah, I mean, I'm not sure that Piers Morgan needs more plugging, but there's a show called McKnight Tonight, which does some hot topics. I give you my views and there's always a feature interview and a bit of fun. Eight o'clock, nightly.
110:38
Same time as I'm on. Thank you very much for that. But just in relation to that, so Cole Sanderlands, he's obviously got to get an income. So he's launching these little clips of his, essentially his life. I think they're 20-minute clips. And then he's going to launch his TV show or his radio show, which will be streamed. I don't know whether it'll be on YouTube as well. I'm not sure. But they're saying...
111:04
You'll be able to subscribe to it, and it's $99 for a year. Now, this is a question. Are people going to pay $99 to watch it for the year? Because my sense is that if he'd said, all right, it's $8 a month, which isn't a lot, and you can subscribe and you can cancel at any time, the fear then would be, well, they might drop out after the first month. But if I get $99 from them, they're in for the first year, and I've got a lump of cash to keep going with.
111:34
Yeah, it's funny. When you go to the subscription page on Kyle's website, you only have the choice of taking out a yearly membership. So you can't do it monthly. And I think that's dangerous. Yes, you can get some more money through the door from Kyle's perspective, but it makes you stop and think, if you want to try it, and see what it's all about, eight, ten bucks, you go, okay, I'll try it for a month, you know, and you may end up subscribing for the whole year.
112:07
But he's asking people to take a big leap of faith by locking them into $99.
112:14
I think that's a marketing mistake. They've obviously got their reasons for it, but it stopped me from subscribing.
112:22
Yeah, so that's the whole point. If they said to you, well, you can only get Netflix if you pay for the whole year, you'd say, no, well, I'll have it monthly. Correct. I'll suck it and see. That will be interesting. But they obviously want to get the money through the door to keep things going.
112:36
Yep. All right. Well, he's obviously trying to cover the costs of setting up, and set-up costs would be quite a lot. There's salaries to be paid. Yep.
112:46
And look, $99 for a year is an unreasonable cost. It's just that it, well, how does that compare? What does that work out per month, John?
112:57
Well, I think it's roughly, it's not much more than $8 a month. So you get, you know, not much more.
113:03
Which is reasonable, but you can get Amazon Prime Video for the same kind of price.
113:09
And instead with Kyle, you're getting one show. Now, having said that, I think there's a lot of people, a lot of fans who would pay for it. And I would have taken a look. if I didn't have to lock into 99 bucks for a year.
113:20
Yeah, and the thing there is you get 10,000 people, that gives you a million bucks. I think that's what they're saying. They're working on that basis, I think, at the moment. 131873, if I've got those numbers wrong, someone's going to tell me, so let me... Someone says, I'd rather hit my thumb with a hammer... than watch Kyle or listen to Kyle. Thank you very much for that. Also, then something at Glenbrook. This is in the Blue Mountains there. Would you know what they're filming in Glenbrook? There's 10 to 15 TV studio cars. Something to do with Home and Away.
113:51
It's at Glenbrook. So I don't know.
113:53
Oh, well, if it's Home and Away, that's... No, he's thinking. He's thinking.
113:57
But I'm assuming the filming crews for Home and Away don't have a Home and Away on the vehicles...
114:03
Here's the thing, there's so much production happening, so you never fully know what it is. Home and Away's a good guess. But the actress from The White Lotus, whose name is escaping me right at the moment, the older lady who was in American Pie, who played Stifler's mum, She's in Australia at the moment. She was filmed in Bondi today doing some shopping. So that could be a production she's part of. Maybe.
114:27
We'll check on that. And you've done it to me now because the name's just drifted out of my head. We all know who she is.
114:35
Some of us talk about White Lotus. You think about Stifler's mum? Very, very good. Let's, at 11 minutes to 11, come back in a moment.
114:44
At 8 minutes to 11, 131873 is the number. Yes, there is an ad for Audible being done by Jennifer Coolidge. Channel 7 had the story tonight, so she's here. She's doing an ad for Audible.
114:56
Maybe she... Who knows? And she is someone who I think in private is exactly as she is in the... She seems to be, doesn't she? ...the movies that she does. Why does morning TV have to be from 5.30 to 9?
115:10
Paul says they're basically repetitive all morning. They're not designed to be watched, I think, for three and a half hours, are they?
115:15
No, they're designed for 15-minute chunks. Basically, people getting up, seeing what's on the news, maybe hanging a bit longer. You're not meant to watch three hours or three and a half hours.
115:25
Xander Maguire is part of Channel 7 Sports Coverage. He's Eddie's son, isn't he? He works for Channel 7, Xander. And he does look like a chip off the old block. He's pretty good as well.
115:35
Marcus says he'd pay $200 a year.
115:38
for the back catalogue of Stan Zemanik radio shows. There are some CDs I might dig up, actually, and we do do a bit of nostalgia on Wednesdays, and I'll talk to Marcella if we can't find them. So I'll try and do something for you there.
115:49
Hang on, hang on. There's an idea. There's an idea for Tapped Media.
115:54
Why not pull out all the old recordings of some of the bigger stars and have them available on demand for a fee? It's not a bad idea, actually.
116:02
All right. Okay. You'll want to cut for that too, won't you? Yes, thank you, Tom Malone. And can I also then just mention this? Because just in the last 15 minutes, in America they've got the Today Show, they've got Good Morning America, and they have Fox and Friends. So Fox and Friends is the fox show. version of breakfast tv uh donald trump's the most uh i think he's the most interviewed and media uh well media not really a friendly but he does a lot of media So he just rings in. So he's been on the phone.
116:32
He just rings in. I just had a look. I think he's been on the phone 15, 20 minutes. Could be a war about to start. So they've got their show. They plan their whole show. They've got guest people in the green room. And the phone rings, Mr. President. And he just, so they have ads they have to dump, I assume. They have people they have to tell, hey, listen, I know you're supposed to be singing a song for us. You'll have to go home because he just talks and it's all.
116:54
Well, that's the thing. Donald Trump can talk underwater. And in the early days, networks were like, we've got President Trump on the phone. Yahoo. But now it's a bit like, it's good to have the president on, but we've got to get to this interview and that, and he doesn't wrap up.
117:11
No. Well, you can't wrap him up. You don't want to. Anything could be said.
117:17
That's true. But the other thing is he's the only president that has given his personal mobile phone number to the press. That's right. The press can literally ring him if they've got a question about what's going on. And he said, there's a lot I'll ignore, but sometimes I'll just answer a random call and see who's giving me a call.
117:38
And sometimes it comes from some person in a very, very remote part of America, but they'll get to talk to him. So it is fascinating. If only we could do that here. But then again, do you really want to be able to hear from them all the time here?
117:55
Do you? Yeah. It's not the same. It's not the same. There's a big difference between a Prime Minister of Australia and the President of the United States. Okay.
118:04
Look, Once again, we've had a fantastic hour. Just a reminder to our listeners, those two numbers that you're predicting for the Powerball draw this Thursday night, they are 13 and 28.
118:14
And I'd still throw 27 in there.
118:18
Oh, God. All right. So you're giving us those three numbers as the basis for your pitch. I won't ask you to tip football or anything else like that. We'll just see you go this time, and you may become not just our TV guru, you may become the seer, and I'll have a little...
118:35
Robster dramas. All of that stuff. All of that stuff.
118:38
And don't forget, it was TV Blackbox, the website. That's where you can go and have a look at the ratings, the details of the ratings. I know a lot of you are sceptical about the ratings. And he's got his TV show, McKnight Tonight, on YouTube as well. You can see that. You can catch up with that any time. So watch it. Not while that shows up.
118:54
Yeah, you don't have to watch it live if you're listening to John, but you can have a look after.
118:58
Yeah, good on you. And we'll do it again next week, mate. Thank you. Thank you, my friend. There he is, Mr. Rob McKnight, four minutes to 11 now.
119:05
We have the news coming up soon. We'll have tomorrow's headlines. There's a few stories that you'll want to hear. Also, the fallout from what's happened in Victoria where there's a new Premier and there's already a few little snippets emerging that may be some landmines for that new Premier. Also, just the... The ongoing Brittany Higgins, Bruce Lehrman case and Fiona Brown, and there's a settlement in that case which has been taken out against some of the Liberal Party people in Scott Morrison's office.
119:36
I'll give you the details of that coming up shortly. That'll be in tomorrow's papers as well. All of that after this, the news.
119:57
Now it's back to John Stanley, right across Australia.
120:21
Good evening, everyone. Welcome along. It is now seven minutes past 11, final hour of our show for tonight. I'll have tomorrow's headlines for you. There's a lot happening. And for those who've been listening to some of the stories through the day, there is now going to be a stage play of The Castle. When you think The Castle came out in 1997...
120:39
And in the space of 30 years, it's become really part of our culture. It does lend itself to being a stage play, you would think, The Castle. But with the conversation about The Castle today, a few people were asking me, you can actually, you've got to have Stan.
120:54
You may have a DVD version of it, but it's on Stan, the castle. I can't see it anywhere else. I think it might be. You can buy copies of it. It may be on YouTube as well. So if you want to go and have a look and revisit that little bit of Aussie history, that's where you find that one. There's also been a story, and again, these are the stories...
121:15
Sometimes they pop up and it's just happening too often. So this has happened, this is on the Central Coast, Mann Street at Gosford. A couple of hours ago, police went to a pub. A 22-year-old man had been stabbed.
121:32
He was treated at the scene, taken to Gosford Hospital. And a short time later, police notified the 22-year-old had died in hospital, 22 years old. So there's a heavy police presence has been through the evening outside the Gosford Hotel. So that's happened tonight. There's a bit of other worrying crime news that I'll share with you shortly when we get into tomorrow's headlines and a lot more coming up in this hour. 131873, our...
122:00
Our man who keeps us in touch with movies, Dale Syndon, well, he's still doing his World Odyssey. And we did have people last week who wanted me to go and watch Odyssey and give you my review. I haven't had time to see it, three hours, and you've got to go along Cremorne Orpheus where you can see it in 70mm. If you've seen it, you might like to tell us, give us your review. Give us your review. Give it the thumbs up, the thumbs down.
122:26
If you've seen it, you might like to send me a note, you can do it. 0460 873 873 or you might come on with your voice and give us a review as well. 131873 is the number here at 10 past 11 now.
122:53
Now, front pages, as you can imagine, most of the publications tomorrow do have extensive coverage of the leadership change in Victoria and the political ramifications of that. I'll just kick off, though, with the Brisbane Courier Mail. They have across their front page a coloured photo of the female members of our swimming team who are on track for a record medal haul at the Commonwealth Games. They're doing very, very well, and I don't think we can ever... understate how good our female swimmers are in particular, the way they carry themselves.
123:24
They are a credit to the nation. The whole swim team does so, so well. And that is the front page there of the Courier-Mail. But on the other side of the coin, at the other end of the spectrum in terms of news, there's this story. Headline says, I will kill my family. Accused murderer allegedly told psychiatrist.
123:45
And it says the behaviour...
123:49
of a man accused of boarding a plane after murdering his wife and baby girl has been laid bare in witness accounts as evidence from the man's father also sheds light on his state of mind before the killings. Dennis Cox is one of five family members cross-examined in a committal hearing in the Rockhampton Magistrates Court for Matthew James Cox's two murder charges.
124:12
Father of the man, this is Dennis Cox, has revealed what a treating psychiatrist was concerned about 11 months before the killings. Comments made in text messages were quite concerning as a father.
124:28
Messages about the fellow and some of the things he was saying and what his state of mind was.
124:35
Mr Cox is saying he was kind to people growing up.
124:39
And then they're saying that there were changes in his behaviour. He was urged to seek psychological help. He improved but didn't return to his old self. His evidence was his son wasn't his usual enthusiastic self about the AFL Grand Final. Was in a mental health ward in 2022. And then there's evidence that the psychiatrist, when he visited that ward in September 2022, raised concerns that Mr Cox had disclosed his desire to kill family members.
125:09
He'd raised this with his son who told him it was a cry for help and he wouldn't kill them. And then there are comments here about an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting. And again, it's a very sad tale of mental health issues, how they're dealt with and obviously in this case not dealt with in the way that would have presented this absolute horror. So that's the front page of the Courier Mail and it's also in the Townsville Bulletin magazine. The Daily Telegraph in Sydney, probably no surprise.
125:40
I think everyone's expecting that Laurie Daly wouldn't be continuing as the New South Wales Origin coach. I think that was pretty well a given on the night of New South Wales victory. But until now, he's kept that open, the formal announcement. And so he's talked about a health scare.
125:57
He's ended the speculation. Well, I'm not sure there was speculation. I think it was an expectation. There's a picture of him there, victorious, with the players behind him. There's a picture of Laurie Daly with his jacket there. It says, victorious, New South Wales origin coach, ended speculation. He quits the job amid a health scare.
126:15
Their main story, though, goes to this question of criminals and crime in our community. Josh Hanrahan has this one. The headline says, burbs go kaboom.
126:27
Cops discover cache of legal weapons, including grenades, automatic rifles and ammo.
126:33
There's a picture of a hand grenade there as well on the front page. It says live hand grenades, automatic rifles and enough ammunition to service a small army. They've been uncovered in a safe house.
126:45
In Sydney suburbs, in what police say is a worrying sign of the high-powered violence in which underworld gangs are now willing to engage. This is a story, and I say Josh Hanrahan, Mark Morrie, they've done a really, really good job of being on top of the difficult picture of this extraordinary gang battle in Sydney.
127:06
Where it doesn't make a lot of sense that they're out there killing each other and it's turf wars, drugs, tobacco, whatever it might be. And obviously they've got a lot of illegal weapons, including things like hand grenades. Hand grenades. So this has been found by the police in what they describe as a safe house. where they plainly feel this is somewhere they can go. But the police are on to it, which is good news. So that's the front page of the Telegraph in Sydney. They've also got Jennifer Coolidge, who we mentioned earlier. She's been in White Lotus.
127:37
She was in the American Pie movies.
127:39
It says here, and I haven't got the story, but it just says icon or weird.
127:44
She's very out there. She's very eccentric, and she's someone who's very loud. I think that's how she is. Could be listening right now. Give us a call, 131873. So that's the front page of the Telegraph in Sydney.
127:56
The Sydney Morning Herald.
127:58
And I'm keen, you may be someone who's affected by this, because Sydney Airport, the new Sydney Airport at Badgeries Creek, through the early hours of this morning, so we're talking now 24 hours on, The first night of 24-7 flights. So the Herald's got some comments here from people who live in, there's an example here, someone who lives in the Oaks, which is in MacArthur in southwest Sydney. Three o'clock in the morning, the muffled sound of roaring engines.
128:29
I thought that's not a truck, that's an airplane.
128:32
She rolled over and opened the Flightradar app on her phone. So, of course, you can see what's there and you can work out what the plane is.
128:39
It was the first night of 24-7 cargo flights departing and arriving at the new Western Sydney International Airport.
128:46
There was a freight plane owned by the logistics company Team Global Express travelling to Adelaide.
128:53
And there were 12 flights departing the airport and nine arriving. They say there were eight planes took off between 1am and 5am.
129:02
And there's a mixed response.
129:04
There are people who say it's louder than they expected. There are other people who are saying, in fact, there's a Luddenham Progress Association.
129:12
Their president says he was expecting the noise to be worst in Luddenham Village, a kilometre from the airport. Was surprised to hear very little.
129:21
You've got Melissa McIntosh, who's the member for Lindsay. She is someone who's been concerned all along about all of this, saying that those numbers weren't all that flash.
129:30
So we'll see what comes of all of that. It's been a long, long haul, this, going all the way back to 1986, when the Hawke government identified the land for the Badgeries Creek Airport. The first sod was, well, the turning of the first sod was in the 1993 budget.
129:49
And then it's been a long, long saga of obfuscation, of changing minds, of campaigns to and from.
129:58
Macquarie buying Sydney Airport at the time, paying what people thought was more than they needed to. Then, of course, they made truckloads of money. We all know we parked there. You go to Sydney Airport. And then 2013, Tony Abbott finally bit the bullet and said it has to be done.
130:14
And it was finally being done in this way. The original plan, the Howard government set up a memorandum. When they sold Sydney Airport, the Howard government said, well, you can buy Sydney Airport and we're putting in a memorandum of understanding if there's a second airport, you build it. which of course meant that guaranteed a new airport wasn't going to be competitive with the existing airport. That had to be unpicked, I think, by the Turnbull government. And we've finally got this airport underway later this year. It's been a long, long saga and a classic example of how long it takes to get anything done in this country.
130:47
We could probably add a lot of them. So that's, look, the Sydney Morning Herald's covering all of that, covering the leadership change in Victoria. And they've also got the fallout from the ICAC inquiry.
130:59
There's a comment here they've got on their front page talking about 270,000 students in Catholic schools across New South Wales all have good cause to be disgusted by the evidence of financial abuse and breathtaking entitlement.
131:12
aired during a major corruption inquiry today and a right to demand answers as well because the ICAC is investigating the Catholic School's New South Wales Chief Executive as part of a broader probate of the New South Wales Liberal Party's relationship with the fugitive developer Jean Nassif.
131:30
And so you've got kids going to the Catholic schools, which have a fantastic reputation.
131:37
You'd be wondering how the school and the umbrella group for the school got tied up with this rancid, toxic mess. Now, at 23 past 11, front page of The Australian, they do cover the change of leadership in Victoria. We've got a new premier. This is Ben Carroll, the former deputy. who got up and said, yeah, I'm going to have a Royal Commissioner of the Building Industry Rorts.
131:59
I'm not Daniel Andrews. I'm not Jacinta Allen. So he's trying to draw a line and say, it's a change of government. I'm not going to be like them. And let's see whether that works. Premier's poll scramble to repudiate Andrews and Allen, ALP's bold new vision, clean up its own mess, a full report on all of that.
132:19
Then...
132:20
They've got some commentary here from various commentators. Can Carol survive the political payback that's awaiting him? Jacinta Allen's speech, her retirement speech, no mention of business, only passing reference to the economy. It was quite a weird speech, and it did look like she was essentially in total denial. Now, this is an important one at 20 past 11. Going back to the whole Brittany Higgins saga – Commonwealth has settled the explosive lawsuit brought by the former Liberal staffer Fiona Brown, sparing the former Prime Minister Scott Morrison and his senior advisors the embarrassment of a trial over allegations they prevented her from responding to false allegations by Brittany Higgins that destroyed her life.
133:05
Ms Brown's revealed how she was made to take the fall for the Morrison government, sought to deflect Labor's false accusations of a cover-up, ruthlessly cast aside by her Liberal Party colleagues when she became to them a liability. She's been kind of a bit clear in all of this, but the Australians had a number of stories on her showing that she has been...
133:24
a victim of this, and the people who have caused her to be a victim should be ashamed of themselves. It said, Now, what's interesting here...
133:58
It says the government took a hard line against Miss Brown in the case, hiring top silk Kate Eastman to defend the matter and only filing a defence in June, more than six months after Miss Brown lost her fair work claim in the federal court. So it's been settled, this case.
134:15
You do have to wonder and hope that Fiona Brown has got satisfaction. Her reputation should be rehabilitated and she should have got satisfaction for the way she was treated by both sides of politics. But it does raise questions about whether, if the case had gone ahead, would you have had some examination of the government's handling of all of this, as well as Scott Morrison's handling of it, and also the quick $2.4 million settlement with Miss Higgins, which could have been examined there. So anyway, that's where that one stands.
134:48
And there is some comment here from Stephen Rice, who's been around for a long time. Hypocrisy of the Albanese government and its treatment of former Liberal staffer Fiona Brown is staggering. It says the Labor government was happy to hand Brittany Higgins a $2.4 million settlement without ever consulting Brown or her boss, Linda Reynolds, By contrast, the government's put Brown through hell as she fought for her day in court, resisting her fair work claim tooth and nail, hiring an expensive legal team and piling on the pressure. She should never have been forced into this kind of battle.
135:20
So, implication there. You've got a huge legal battle ahead of you, and so you settle. So that's the front page of The Australian. I suspect we might hear more of that particular story as well. And they've also got the story on the front page talking about how the RBA is flagging more rate rises to core inflation.
135:41
And the front page of the Financial Review newspaper, this is Ben Carroll. He's inherited what they call the state of disarray.
135:50
described by Labour MPs within the caucus as a debacle, unhinged, wild, sad and chaotic, and the subject of their scorn was Alan and her allies. She's not very popular as Senator Alan within the party, but she seems to have been...
136:05
locked into a bubble today and unaware of just how parlous her situation was. So she's gone, and that's some of the things people are going to be talking about tomorrow across the front page of the papers. There's also reported, both in The Herald and The Australian, This is Gina Reinhart, who is now revealed, I think this was suspected, she's now revealed to have funded Pauline Hanson's European flights and her fashion tickets. So this is in her parliamentary register. She updated it today, Pauline Hanson, confirming that her fashion parade ticket, and that was a pretty ritzy, expensive one.
136:41
and return flights in mid-June to Europe were covered, quote, courtesy of Gina Reinhart. Pauline Hanson paid for her own accommodation, meals and daily expenses after she insisted the European trip came at no cost to the taxpayer, which, based on that, is true. It didn't come at any cost to the taxpayer. And that's what people are going to be talking about tomorrow, 25 past 11 now.
137:05
131873 is our number. It is 27 and a half minutes past 11. Let's go to the UK. Channel 7's correspondent there, Ben Downey, joins me. Hello, Ben. G'day, John. How are you? Well, probably a bit better than you because, look, normally when we talk about the UK and everyone there complaining about the heat, Australians go, really? But it is very hot right across Europe at the moment, isn't it?
137:31
Yeah, we're in our fourth consecutive heatwaves of the year.
137:36
The fourth one just landed today. So temperature's around 32 degrees in London. I'm from Queensland. I know 32 isn't big to Australia. Exactly. No building here's got air conditioning. No building here's got air conditioning. Everything's double brick and absorbs heat like crazy. So we're all squeltering through. But, I mean, spare a thought. The Brits have it somewhat bad. Spare a thought for the poor French and Spaniards. They...
138:01
They have some absolutely astonishing wildfires. I think Macron today, the French president, said that France and the group of the worst wildfire crisis since the end of the Second World War and have undergone the biggest peacetime evacuation in the nation's history because they've evacuated more than 300,000 people near Bordeaux, which is usually this time of year people are flocking there. Now they're fleeing there. That's right. Such as the power of wildfires, about 250,000 consumed. And in Spain, there's wildfires encircling Madrid.
138:31
A bit over 100,000 people evacuated there as well. I think there's at least a dozen deaths or more. So it's a really, really grim situation.
138:42
They were trying to get a handle on these fires across the weekend and yesterday before this heat wave lands. But you're literally talking to me. It's sort of, you know, 2.30...
138:54
PM in the afternoon, so the first real hard, first hit, the first blow of this heat wave is struck now, so firefighters are right now experiencing some of the worst conditions they'll see until these fires are extinguished.
139:05
Yeah, and we talk about, this is the time of the year, you mentioned a place like Spain, which is, I think I've seen figures whether this is still the case, probably the biggest tourist magnet in the world. People love going to Spain, so there's a big economic hit. when people cancel their plans, apart from the fact that the place is burning and people's lives are at risk and houses are at risk, economically it's got to have a huge impact as well.
139:30
Massively. I mean, these economies, I mean, France is a bit different. They've got a huge industry, but Spain's not as diverse an economy. Tourism plays a much bigger role and sort of trade on other things like that. You don't see many people rolling around in Spanish cars. They don't make sort of, you know, large industrial things. They make a little bit of wine, but nothing like france or italy so tourism is huge for them and it's brits usually going to escape a miserable britain going to majorca or benedorm these kind of ibiza these kinds of destinations but um right now it's actually good to read the capital as well which is obviously a huge destination um that's under fire in a very literal sense so look yeah home's been lost there um they are saying there might be a light at the end of the tunnel with some potential rain but Look, it's the kind of disaster where you're going to keep feeling the effects of this for months, if not at least a year to come, really, with the cleanup and everything like that.
140:28
And look, there's another one. I mean, you've got a new prime minister doing things. So this is kids are going to get technical education from the age of 14, things like manufacturing and AI, to try and get them doing practical things.
140:43
Yeah, that's right. So this is Andy Burnham. This is very much in his vein as this sort of Prime Minister of the North, where a lot of Britain's industry is.
140:52
Burnham, ironically, is a Cambridge-educated... I think he's educated in English and arts. But he wants... more people not just to be going into university, he wants kids to be entering technical college. And so he's basically in his sort of social media sort of influence of PM that England finds itself with or Britain finds itself with, he's throwing away a sort of a diploma hat and then putting on a hard hat because he wants kids to have his pathway to technical college because there are a lot of, you know, you're going to be cutting down migration, which...
141:25
Britain massively is right now. I think they're down 200,000 people compared to last year, letting people in because they have this crisis. You need to start funding these skills. So they've got kids from 14 fast-tracked through to technical colleges, teaching them trades and other things. And as well as AI, I mean, the problem is no economy in the world can seem to grow right now. Everyone's pretty anemic. And so the way you sort of find your way out is you innovate your way out in sort of this plan. Yeah. start teaching kids about ai now hopefully once it becomes completely ubiquitous and more so it is now which is a scary thought um they'll be well positioned because like australia they're not really capable of setting up these data centers and other things so of course they've got to use people power yeah very interesting all right mate lovely to talk to you and uh i'm trying to imagine some of your mates listening on 4bc and the rest of our network stations down he's complaining about 32 degrees
142:18
So you're going to cop it. You know you're going to cop it.
142:21
Got a reputation as a winder, mate. It's fine. Good on you.
142:24
Well done. Thank you. Ben Downey there, Channel 7's Europe correspondent. You'll see images of, I guess, poms taking their shirts off in Hyde Park trying to get cool. But those wildfires through Spain and France are just absolutely dreadful and very, very frightening. And they are continuing. You can only hope that maybe there'll be some rain. 131873 is our number.
142:46
27 minutes to 12. Of course, that means 27, 5, 32, maybe 33 minutes away. Phil O'Neill will be launching himself onto the airwaves. How are you, mate?
142:56
Good. Your timing is as good. Trying to work out the chimes is as good as me trying to work out the daylight saving times. It took me two weeks. By the end of it, I had it down pat.
143:05
It's coming up in October. We'll be able to get back to that. It'll be terrific.
143:08
John, I thought you'd like this. In 1963, Capitol Records, to coincide with the release of the Beach Boys' Little Juice Coupe, they sent all of the DJs on the radio back in 1963 some hot rod terms, so when you were talking about the songs, you could throw in some hot rod terms.
143:26
Oh, what are they? Have I ever?
143:30
That's one of the big sounds of the drags.
143:32
Of the drags. Of the drags.
143:34
Yeah.
143:34
There's a go, go, go-kart. This is real Ward Pally Austin stuff, isn't it?
143:41
That one's a hot rod.
143:44
Rev this one up.
143:45
This is all sounding because tomorrow night we do our nostalgia bit. We go back and find old radio, and I think there's some stuff going all the way back.
143:53
There's a guy called Ugly Phil who used to be a music jockey. No, hang on.
143:57
I don't think I ever did that.
143:58
They're playing the platters that matter.
143:59
No, I never played the groovy platters that matter. The platters that matter. Stacks of wax and loads of platter chatter. That was never me, John.
144:05
Tomorrow morning, is there a tag for tomorrow morning?
144:08
Well, no, Dr. Carl Kruzoneski answers your questions, and one of the questions from our listener, Darren, is can plants think?
144:16
And again, Dr. Carl knows, and you'd be surprised when he asked that.
144:20
Can you disprove it?
144:22
Can you say they don't?
144:24
Well, can you say they do? I don't know.
144:25
Well, didn't the king used to, when he was the prince, Prince Charles, didn't he speak to plants?
144:30
Yeah, look at him now, he's king.
144:31
But I'm asking you the question, how do you know they don't?
144:33
Well, I don't know, do I? I'm not a plant.
144:35
If you walk past a plant and pull a flower off a bush... What, you think it might go, ouch? Well, it mightn't say it, but it might feel it. How do you know?
144:42
I don't know. Not do plants have feelings. Let's not get confused here. Can plants think? That's what we're talking about. Have you ever seen the thing, John, and it's on YouTube, where plants give out vibrations? So they put electrodes to the leaves of the plants, put a little speaker on it, and they hear the sounds of the plants, which is very musical, surprisingly.
145:02
Hmm. So that's coming up a bit. Day of the Triffids, very frightening.
145:07
Terrible documentary. There were some tough days those days. And also, what is the sleep debt? How can you pay it back? We'll talk about that. And also, on a serious topic, our support for Lebanon Wains, we're going to look at people like Hezbollah and Hamas and their attempts to try and legitimise.
145:26
Quick one, if I can, because the new premier of Victoria, Ben Carroll. Yes. Now, you've seen him today.
145:34
Is he not an absolute dead ringer for Lawrence Mooney? Now, Lawrence Mooney, the comedian, used to do Malcolm Turnbull.
145:41
Right, yes.
145:42
Now, this bloke looks just like Lawrence Mooney. If I was doing a breakfast TV show, I'd get the two of them in because, well, Mooney had that short-lived impersonation of Malcolm Turnbull. Yeah.
145:53
He certainly milked that, didn't he?
145:56
He did. But then Turnbull's gone. And then there was a comedian who was doing a very good Kevin Rudd. His meal ticket went when Rudd went. That's it. And I think he's got about three months.
146:06
Oh, so you think Mooney might make a comeback? Maybe.
146:08
I'm just telling you, go and have a look.
146:12
They look exactly alike. Do you know what? I'd love to, but I just don't have time for that, John.
146:16
Now, you know you brought in a wig the other day.
146:18
Yes, I brought in the wig that Graham brought back from Scotland. That's Graham who's Scottish.
146:24
You've got a wig.
146:25
That's a Donald Trump wig. It is.
146:26
It's not bad, is it?
146:27
It's fantastic.
146:28
You've got no idea where it's being combed from.
146:30
Where have you found that there?
146:31
I got it for Halloween a couple of years ago to go out as Donald Trump. All you do is a white shirt and you have a red tie that is basically down to your ankles.
146:41
Yeah, of course. That's the thing about Trump.
146:45
And orange face powder.
146:46
But the thing about Trump is he's so well known around the world. You can have a caricature or just the outline of somebody that looks like Trump and immediately he's the greatest marketer in the history of marketing. And so you're going to wear that tonight when you go to the singles bar. Is that right? After the show. Go to the singles bar. What are you talking about? I'm going home to my wife and son. Right. Okay. Do they know that you masquerade as Donald Trump in your spare time?
147:10
I've got this here.
147:13
If I told you about some of the items that have been worn at Halloween.
147:18
You're a mystery man, John Stanley.
147:19
Turn your hair. All right, thank you for that. You're here in about 25 minutes from now. There he is, Mr Phil O'Neill.
147:25
Thank you, Donald.
147:29
131873 is the number. Just on the feedback, I've got Cozzy. Odyssey was very loud, but it was very good. Three hours went fast, but bottle of water, 500 mils inside, was $6.48 for the bottle of water. Remembering, the bottle of water you buy in the plastic is no different to the bottle you get out of the tap.
147:55
And it's always intrigued me. We spend weeks talking about the price of milk. So people will complain when a bottle of milk goes up in price and sitting next to that bottle of milk in a fridge will be a same-size bottle of water that they're charging more for.
148:18
And that's just come out of a tap or...
148:21
generally out of a tap sometimes it might have come out of some sort of spring as opposed to a cow has to be raised and fed and milked and then just unbelievable we do complain about that 131873 is the number so we've got odyssey very very loud very good you're paying $6.48 for a bottle of water Another person, Michael, stuff going to a three-hour movie. I'd rather be outside bushwalking or playing golf, each to their own.
148:52
We did earlier in the program, we were talking about people making predictions. And if you listen to this show regularly, some people say I jinx things, but we have got the Commonwealth Games at the moment. And tomorrow, there'll be the semifinals and the final of the 100 beaters on the track.
149:09
And there are three Australians in the semi-final, which is then run later in the morning and then the final in the 100 metres. Always very competitive, the 100 at the Commonwealth Games. But Lockie Kennedy is the fastest Australian. He's run under 10 seconds.
149:25
And I've mentioned this a few times.
149:27
It's 64 years since an Australian man stood on the dais in over 100 metres or yards as it was then. You've got to go back all the way to 1962. Mike Cleary finished in the bronze medal position in the Commonwealth Games in Perth.
149:43
The great Mike Cleary, who represented Australia in rugby union, played for South Sydney in rugby league and played for Australia. He ended up becoming a minister in the RAND government, minister for sport and member for Coogee. But he's the last man in that short blue ribbon event, over 100.
150:00
to be on the dais. And he won the bronze medal. So that's something Lockie Kennedy might change later this morning. We've got two others as well, Rowan Browning. So let's see what happens tomorrow. And if they don't, we don't get on the dais. Don't blame me. I haven't jinxed them. I think they are extraordinary talents. Let's hope they can do it later in the morning. If you want to stay up and watch that, I think it'll be much later in the morning at the Commonwealth Games there in Glasgow. 16 minutes to 12 right now.
150:32
Someone's saying here they remember when Ugly Phil used to play the hits because he, in a different life, he was a jock, as they call them. He used to talk very quickly. He's now very balanced and very calm. This one from Tim says, surprising there's a heatwave in London, only 16 degrees in Glasgow, the joys of a Scottish summer. That's what Tim's saying. And they are saying in this weather that I've been given that the UK has been gripped by this heatwave, but there's a north-south split.
151:03
And there's clouds and outbreaks of rain in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Northern England. So the southern part of England is copping this very, very hot weather. And of course, we know it's happening across in other parts of Europe. 131873 is the number. And just this one.
151:19
Because, again, the vote's still holding up for One Nation. There's another poll tonight. This is the Sky News, or we're now calling it the News 24 fortnightly poll. It's done by YouGov.
151:32
Labor's on 28% of the primary vote. One Nation has slipped a point from 26 to 25. Still very high. But the Coalition's gone up two points to 22. Again, as I mentioned earlier, the job for the Coalition is to, first of all, get itself ahead of One Nation. and then start to farm some of those One Nation preferences, this poll suggests that they are making some ground on that front. But on the other hand, what I did the front pages a moment ago, and I was talking about the Brittany Higgins saga, we have got the behaviour of Scott Morrison and the advisors in his office toward Fiona Brown and others.
152:09
And then, of course, we know the way the government has dealt with this one. in relation to Fiona Brown. And you get this note here. Higgins, Albo's influence, Morrison. They wonder why we're all going to go and vote for Pauline. And I will also just briefly mention something. And this was in Crikey. They published this this afternoon.
152:30
It's in relation to political donations and the big dinner that everyone's been talking about and how the Labor Party was just trousering huge amounts of money from lobbyists and others at their conference buying. Essentially, it's a corrupt process. You buy access to ministers or shadow ministers. Both sides do it.
152:49
And the public donate, both of them have agreed there needs to be real-time disclosure. So in other words, if someone donates in real time, you'd actually be able to see, well, who donated money at the conference? It's all listed.
153:06
Now, there's a transitional approach. So the information will be released later in the year.
153:15
So it isn't released straight away.
153:17
Under the old rules it wouldn't be released until the beginning of next year, beginning of 2028. I think under the transitional rules it gets released in the early part of next year. But why can't they just release it now?
153:28
There's no reason why they can't. There's just no transparency at all. And again, that's the sort of thing that people will say, well, that's why I'm looking for an alternative. And you might say One Nation is being funded to a large extent by Gina Reinhart.
153:43
But what Pauline Hanson will say is, well, the plane wasn't done secretly. Everyone knew who gave me the plane. She did.
153:52
And they've now adjusted the register of interest today. She funded her trip to Europe and to the fashion show. So she's actually doing it in real time. Why can't the rest? 12 to 12.
154:06
Nine minutes to 12. We have had a few people talk about Stan Zamanik, and you did have a CD of crazy callers at one point, so we might try and track that one down, because a few of you have been asking, have a bit of fun tomorrow night when we have our Nostalgia Hour that's coming up tomorrow night. Also, we'll talk cars tomorrow night. The people from Costa Car, Sean Mackle, he's here, along with Trent Nikolic. So if you've got a car that you want valued, that comes up tomorrow night. We might look into this one as well, where... The Automobile Dealer Association, they're forecasting that China's share of the new car market will get to 58% by 2035.
154:43
It's going up. The sales of BYDs, MGs and other electric cars are going up.
154:49
And they're saying that electric vehicle sales just under 36% in June. That latest data on the rise of electric cars in this country, and particularly the Chinese brands, which are hard to keep track of. We'll go through that for you chapter and verse tomorrow night. 7 to 12 right now. We'll finish with some music shortly coming up. 131873 is the number now at 5 minutes to 12. We were keeping an eye on what Donald Trump has had to say.
155:20
He did this long interview with Fox and Friends. I can't see any reporting because he was on Air Force One earlier and he was saying that Iran was in fact reaching out and wanting to negotiate. But Iran and the people speaking for Iran now are saying, well, no, they don't want to negotiate. They're happy to talk through intermediaries. And now there's this to-ing and fro-ing over whether Iran is now hoping that Donald Trump can't risk more disruption within the Middle East and more disruption to world oil markets because his midterm elections are coming up and he's got historically low approval ratings.
156:02
And then you've got Benjamin Netanyahu, who was the bloke who talked Donald Trump into doing it and thinking it'd be over in three or four days. He's arriving tomorrow. He's going to tell him, we'll finish it off and get back in there. So anything's possible to emerge, particularly from Donald Trump and those talks with the Israeli leader. You might even tell him to get back in his box. Who knows? So that's going to be pretty important, that meeting that'll be held in the next 24 hours. Who knows? We may get some more coming out of the United States as well. If there is, Phil will be right across that.
156:33
I thought we might finish tonight this song. This fellow's actually having a birthday in the next couple of days. So it's an old song, but it's a beautiful Australian song going back quite a few years. We'll finish with this.
